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Just in time for the Christmas break season, both Raiding the Dollar Bins and Magic Deck Vortex have geared up for some fun things. If you haven’t already checked out the Celixia Christmas Break Tournament, I really suggest you do so. It’s gonna be a great time! [Editor's Note: Even thought the games have already begun, if you can get you and one other person to sign up by Thursday and finish your games by Friday -- you can still join the tournament. Please check this link to see all of the details. ~Streetz~] Along with that, testing will finally be over for the Ravnica: City of Guilds Deck Building Competition, and I’ll have the results out for all the competitors. We had a great response this time around, and because you’ve all treated me so well, expect something fun for you to fiddle with around break time. I’d like to take this time to congratulate all the other authors that have been writing for MDV. The volume and quality of your work is truly inspiring, and it makes me look really bad. You guys do an amazing job, and I just want to say keep up the good work. I’m loving it (not in a McDonalds way, of course). [If only McDonald's would pay me for that line. *grin* ~Streetz~] Saying that… SEND ME CARD SUGGESTIONS!!!! Erhm… cough cough cough, I mean, it would be cool to see what you guys can come up with for me to make a deck around. (End hint) I’ve been working on decks for a while now, and as a Johnny, there are cards that stick out. They stick out pretty badly, too. Cards like Blood Funnel, One With Nothing, Warp World, and Eye of Nowhere scream, “Use me!” and I happily oblige. I put a few of these cards in my last competition, but I left one out, a card that’s been screaming at me since I saw the first Ravnica Spoiler. That card is Doubling Season.
Doubling Season is unique in that it doubles not only tokens, but counters on creatures as well. This means it works extremely well with cards with Fading like Skyshroud Ridgeback or Blastoderm, but does extremely badly with cards that have abilities like Cumulative Upkeep. With token decks that have become semi-viable in the current T2, it’s no wonder that people are looking a little more carefully at Doubling Season.
If you analyze Doubling Season a little better, you see that while it works great with Darksteel Reactor, it was really supposed to be used with Selesnya cards to produce more and more token creatures, and do something fun like Hour of Reckoning or Glare of Subdual. I, however, didn’t want to spend that much money, so I decided to to go a different route. Back in the Odyssey block, a series of 5 alternate win conditions were created based on certain numbers of creatures, life, luck counters, and things of that nature. Epic Struggle, the green alternate win card, says if you can control twenty or more creatures at the beginning of your upkeep, you win the game. With Doubling Season, that seemingly daunting task becomes a piece of cake. Let’s take a look at my first deck. [I love it when Beebles provides more than one deck per article!!! ~Streetz~]
The game starts out by playing a few early squirrels and holding your ground while you gear up for the fun. As soon as Doubling Season hits the table all hell breaks loose as you try to race the clock and make 20 creatures as soon as possible, all the while looking for your Epic Struggle to help win you the game.
Squirrel Nest helps keep pumping out the squirrels as you Chatter and Scatter your way to victory. Brainspoil can take care of some pesky creatures like Goblin Sharpshooter, or if you don’t need it, it serves the double utility of tutoring for Scatter the Seeds and Doubling Season. Sakura Tribe Elder helps ramp up your mana curve and thin your deck of lands, making it more likely for you to draw the cards you need. If perchance you can’t find Epic Struggle, you could always just use your massive amount of men to attack for a large number of points of damage to the head. Nantuko Husk and Sekki, Season’s Guide are both in the deck to serve as additional win conditions, in case you can’t find that Epic Struggle. (An interesting side-note is that Sekki, Season’s Guide, Doubling Season, and Blasting Station make an infinite creature combo… sounds intriguing! Maybe another article, though) Things to Remember
2) Epic Struggle is a fragile card. Epic Struggle is what I like to call a beacon card. Players home to it. It’s visible, and it’s a bad thing. They don’t want it around because they know if you’re playing it, the tendency is that you’re going to use it. So they’re gonna bounce it, counter it, destroy it, and other wonderful things that aren’t any good for you. Make sure you only play it when you’re sure you can win next turn. 3) Doubling Season is cumulative. Straight from the Gatherer is this little explanation for you: If there are two Doubling Seasons in play, then the number of tokens or counters is four times the original number. If there are three in play, then the number of tokens or counters is eight times the original number. So if you have 3 Doubling Seasons in play, and you Play Scatter the Seeds, you get 24 creatures! Suggestions for Card Additions
Creatures to add may be cards that come into play with counters, like the Spikes from Stronghold and Exodus can come in handy. I’d especially look at Spike Breeder, since it can double make 6 tokens or pump creatures. If you wanted to add a little random to the mix, try 2 or 3 copies of Panoptic Mirror to make copies of awesome spells like Scatter the Seeds. An interesting choice for replacing Nantuko Husk or Sekki, Season’s Guide would be Scion of the Wild. Since you’re going to get a lot of creatures, he’s gonna get pretty big. Which leads into our next deck, so let’s take a look at it.
Tokens are good. If you have a chance, make more. Make them at the end of your opponent’s turn, preferably, using cards like Evangel and Guildmage to use up extra mana you don’t use up before you untap. Veteran Armorer has been added to take the oomph out of cards like Rain of Embers and Goblin Sharpshooter. STE, or Sac-Em Tribe Elder, is in the deck to accelerate and fix your mana, while Llanowar Elves sits back to accelerate your Pollen-Bright Wings win. This is a fairly aggressive deck, so when you get the chance, attack. Things to Remember 1) Sterling Grove tutors for Pollen-Bright Wings too! Not only does Sterling Grove protect your enchantment win, but it also tutors for your enchantment win. Don’t forget that Pollen-Bright Wings is a tutor target here. Doubling Season is cool, but it’s the Wings that win the game. 2) There is no control in this deck. This deck has no control elements like Devouring Light or Faith’s Fetters, so play smart. You’ve got to get the best bang from your buck, and you’re not going to be able to do that if you aren’t aggressive. 3) Doubling Season is still cumulative. See the previous deck for this “thing to remember”. Also, Remember that with Doubling Season, Scion with Wings attached makes 2 times the amount of creatures you control in tokens, effectively tripling his original Power/Toughness.
The lands are pretty much set here, but if Temple Garden strikes your fancy, go for it. Expect the prices of the first set of dual lands to go down with the release of Guildpact, but not by a whole lot. An interesting card that could be abused here is Congregation of Dawn. It not only fetches your needed creatures, but it also can make your deck into a tool box, letting you play 1'ofs of creatures like Kataki, War’s Edge or Loxodon Gatekeeper. If you wanted another enchantment to win with, Blanchwood Armor is a good place to start. Another interesting idea here is to use more enchantments and play Verduran Enchantress to cycle through your deck quicker and draw the cards you need.
That’s it for me this week. Next week, we’re going to have the contest results for you, plus a brand new deck for you to check out for your casual night. 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 I’d love to see what you guys are capable of coming up with. You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Most Popular
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When
I first started thinking about the decks I would build with Doubling Season, my
first thought jumped to Darksteel Reactor. It was perfect! All I needed to do
was play the Reactor and the Doubling Season, use some Coretappers, some
Dismantles, Energy Chambers, probably some Thirst For Knowledge, and basically,
I came up with a good Darksteel Reactor deck that had 4 too many cards… and
Doubling Season was the first one to get cut from the list. 
Spoiling
the Season. 
1)
Epic Struggle makes you win on your upkeep. What I’m getting at here is
that not only must you have 20 creatures at your beginning of upkeep to win the
game, you also have to have 20 creatures when Epic Struggle’s ability resolves.
If someone burns you down to 19 squirrels, then your out of the win for another
turn.
A
nice set of Ravnica dual lands may hit the spot for this deck, but at 15 dollars
a piece, I wouldn’t recommend it. The land set up seems sort of random for this
deck, but in reality, it works out quite well. If you don’t have the money to
buy a Shizo, just replace it with a Swamp. It’s not a big deal to have it or not
have it, but it makes Sekki a bit better.
Fly
My Pretties, Fly! 
Taking
a complete 180 degree spin from the last deck, “Fly My Pretties, Fly.dec” tries
to ramp up a Selesnya style beating with early Selesnya Guildmage pumping up the
tokens your Selesnya Evangel poops out, and then with a fun late game finish
involving Doubling Season, and a Scion of the Wild that has a Pollen-Bright
Wings attached to it. Talk about tokens! They’re everywhere! Someone call an
exterminator!
Suggestions
for Card Additions