Ah, Kamigawa. The last and final set, Saviors, has shown us a bit of fun in these past two weeks, hasn’t it? With two whole weeks of previews and an exciting weekend of Prerelease fun, I’m sure people are already collecting cards for new decks and ideas that weren’t able to be played before... We’ll be focusing in on Saviors cards next week, when we can look at some cards in epic proportions, and perhaps even look at hand size and all the other crazy themes of Saviors of Kamigawa. Who knows? I may have deck that’ll knock your socks off. But, until then, you’re stuck with the same-old, same-old non-exciting, non-Saviors dollar bin decks.

[EDITORS NOTE: Non-exciting?  I have yet to see a not exciting deck from Death_By_Beebles! ~Streetz]

On a lighter note, the same-old, same-old this week is a deck that lets you take advantage of a crazy combo that I’ve been working on for a while now. We’re heading back to Mirrodin once again for some rares that never get played.  One because of it’s giant restriction, and the other because it’s just too darn confusing. I’ve been able to get playsets of both of these rares for about 2 dollars a set, so don’t worry about budget building this week. So lands don’t trade, and you can change your Myr Mindservant for my Skullclamp? How did that work again? That’s right, in case you haven’t guessed already, this week’s dollar bin rare is none other than the infamous Confusion in the Ranks.

The first time I ever saw Confusion in the Ranks was during a Mirrodin-Mirrodin-Mirrodin draft at a local card-shop. It was the rare in my first pack, and being unexperienced, I decided to draft it. What ended up being a pretty horrible deck turned out to be a bit of an advantage. That’s probably because I never played my deck. I played my opponent’s. I was constantly trading sub-par creatures for my opponent’s best cards. It was amazing. In fact, it was so cool, I decided to build a deck around it, and one day, came across Grid Monitor and thought, “This would be great with Confusion in the Ranks!”. And so the chaos began.

As a brief interlude, I’d like to thank all of the people who have written me with deck ideas and card suggestions. Each of you devoting time to help make Raiding the Dollar Bins a better column with fun and interesting decks is really appreciated, and I invite all of you out there who haven’t sent in ideas and card suggestions to do so! Your ideas are coming to fruition, and I want to be the first to acknowledge all of your help. My email is at the bottom of the article, so feel free to send all those crazy combos to me that you’ve been dying to use, but just haven’t worked out all the way yet. That being said, on with the article!

Confusion in the Ranks is, well, confusing. I can’t think of how many players I’ve played that just quit the game in the middle of it just because they were so confused about what the heck was going on. It has been crazy doing testing, and a lot of people groan when they see it. “Not this again!” My friends hate this deck with a passion. Absolutely hate it. The best thing about Confusion in the Ranks is that it disrupts so many combos, especially ones that rely on two or more permanents on the board at any given time. If they want that permanent, you can just deny them the pleasure of having it by switching it for one of your less optimal cards.

“No, I don’t get your Forest. Here, take it back. No, you can’t trade your Thought Courier for your own Chrome Mox, it doesn’t work like that. What? How in the heck did I get Tundra?” Were just some of the more common things that were said in the matches that I’ve played with the deck, and let me tell you right now, the list is a doozy.

The basic idea of the deck is to use Seething Song to create enough mana on turn 3 to play Confusion in the Ranks, and then on turn 4, play another land to pay enough for Grid Monitor in exchange for one of their artifacts or creatures. What makes Grid Monitor so good? It keeps your opponent from playing any more creatures. Ever. It’s just that good. This card that most people stayed away from, or kept at distance with a 10-foot stick now is a powerful lockdown card. This combo makes it so you can play Donate without playing blue, which really hurts your opponents, especially if they’re playing beat down or some other creature deck. They get their 4/6, but you get to hold them off while you either cycle them to death with Lightning Rift, or just kill them with their own creatures. That part is simple. For even more effectiveness, you can trade for a lot of their stuff, and then use Brand to take back all the things that are yours. It leaves them with nothing, which is a pretty nice place for you to be in, let me tell you.

Wild Research plays a part in fetching those Confusion in the Ranks and Lightning Rifts when you don’t have them. It also grabs any of your cycling cards minus your cycling lands, and copies of Seething Song as well. You get four copies each of the two Urza’s cycling lands, which means you can cycle them for damage when you don’t need them, or play them and use them for Wild Research’s effect, but it’s not fail-proof. Some games, it’s easy to get a Wild Research and no Cycle lands, or get plenty of cycle lands and no Wild Research.

At the beginning of testing this deck, I had Spark Elemental in the space where Chartooth Cougar now resides. I made the switch for two reasons: one being that Chartooth Cougar cycles and gets you land, which accelerates your mana and deals damage with Lightning Rift, and secondly, I found that late game after the lock got down, I didn’t have any big creatures to work with to make a kill condition if my opponent didn’t have creatures to steal. The idea is still quite sneaky, and the Cougars make life a little easier. I also had copies of 2 Myr Mindservants and 1 other Crimson Kobold. Besides being a bad card for your opponent to have, Mindservant didn’t do too much, and 4 copies of the Kobold was just a bit too strong for my taste. Later on in testing, I found a wonder creature in the form of Avalanche Riders. You kill one of their lands, and then they have to pay for it or it dies! What could be better?

I think 4 Wild Research may be a bit too much, because I find that I always have them when I never need them. That’s always a problem. They could be taken down to three copies to add another copy of Spark Spray, or perhaps of Avalanche Riders. Avalanche Riders, by the way, provides a nice 4 drop that takes care of an opponent’s land, and then has to be paid for on their side of the board once he goes down. Crimson Kobolds, while a little expensive for commons, are utterly useless in this deck. All the more reason for you opponent to be having them, right?

Your kill conditions in this deck lie in what your opponent plays. Sadly, this doesn’t work out too well if your opponent is playing cards like Ball Lightning, or if your opponent isn’t killing you with creatures. It works really well if they play good creatures that you can abuse. If you can’t get out your combo lockdown, Lightning Rift and all of the cycling cards provide a steady stream of damage and board control. If you can’t take your opponent’s cards, you need to be taking care of them somehow, and for 1 mana, 2 damage from your Lightning Rifts do that quite well. Your last option is to not play Confusion in the Ranks and beat down with your own Grid Monitor and keep Avalanche Riders alive by paying it’s echo cots, although this is one strategy that I’d stay away from.



Things to Remember

1) Confusion in the Ranks doesn’t affect lands. This is the one thing that so many people get confused about. Lands aren’t affected by Confusion of the Ranks, so you’ll still be able to get your cards played.

2) Grid Monitor is a 4/6. What I mean by that is that when you give your opponent a Grid Monitor, sure, they can’t play spells, but they have a nice 4/6 beat stick to work with. Make sure that you aren’t behind in the damage race if you’re going to lock down your opponent. You’re going to need blockers for that big boy, because if unblocked, it spells a 5 turn loss for you.

3) You pick what to take from your opponents, and they get to pick what they take from you. Consider your board position when you play your cards. You’re going to be taking opponent’s enchantments and creatures, so decide which of your opponent’s things you’d like to have. One game was lost by an opponent who played an enchantment and took my Confusion in the Ranks instead of Lightning Rift. He died next turn due to cycling damage. With that in mind, make sure you take the things your opponent has that you need to survive or keep the lock going. Sometimes, it means taking back your own Grid Monitor so you can block and absorb enough damage until next turn when you can cycle your opponent to death.



Suggestions for Card Additions

In addition to the one card with echo in the deck, Avalanche Riders, any card with echo is a good idea, especially if it destroys a creature or land, or has some effect you can use before giving it away to your opponent. Ghitu Slinger is a good choice, as it provides some extra damage, and then dies for your opponent.

Red doesn’t have to be the major proponent of this deck. In fact, there are plenty of cards in green that make you pay upkeep costs. Generally speaking, if you opponent can’t pay the upkeep cost, then it’s a good card for you to trade with, and may be good for you to beat down with. You need to be able to play your Confusion in the Ranks, so whether you do that with an accelerated mana base with cards like Kodama’s Reach or Sakura-Tribe Elder or with mana acceleration like Seething Song or Desperate Ritual is up to you. Simian Grunts and Pouncing Jaguar are good cards in your early game because they deal early damage, and in late game die in your opponent’s control.

Another good idea that works well in early and late game is playing token creators. Deranged Hermit, while not cheap, can steal up to 5 of your opponent’s creatures! That’s a great thing for 5 mana, and even better when you know they’re going to have to sacrifice that Hermit and have a bunch of vanilla 1/1s when you get their best creatures. Life doesn’t get any sweeter than that. A good example of a token card is Acorn Harvest, which can steal 2 creatures, and on the plus side, it’s reusable. Another good token producer is Raise the Alarm if you delve into white.

Well, that’s it for me this week. Visit next week when I fiddle around with a deck that makes enduring a little pain a lot more fun, and I’ll even step away from the dollar bin a bit to show you what lands can truly do if you know how to use them. Until then, don’t ever forget: Casual magic bliss is only a dollar bin away.

~Death_By_Beebles~

If you have a supposed junk or dollar rare that you would like Death_By_Beebles to cover in Raiding the Dollar Bins, contact him at : deathbybeebles@yahoo.com

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

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