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You see, I was very tired and couldn’t bring myself to posting anymore. Making decks can be a very exhausting experience. However, this time I have some decks. Mind you these decks are kooky and strange and may not even work, but I feel they are fun in some aspect of the word. So, without further ado, here are some decks!
What? It's not a deck by me? What did I do over the past month? Find decks online and paste them in my article? Well... yes.. but that's just the opening deck. Don't
forget I search the net daily for decks to add to MDV Deck Database (which mind
you I have about 50 new decks to add in the near future). The net is a
great source for deck ideas and skeletons for you to build off of. I don't
discourage that. I do discourage copying decks and pretending they are
your own. If you do use someone else's deck - make it your own. What's funny about this deck is that I found it in a thread titled, "Worst Card Ever???"
The members of that forum started posting cards like Mudhole, Sorrow's Path and Filthy Cur. And then this guy wrote, "i've got two words imaginary pet, worst card ever, yeah definitly, itss the only card i cant build a deck with and the deck not suck." Then this other guy (Goblin Champion) wrote “proof that it IS possible to make a halfway feasible deck with pet... I even used OKK. : ) it won't win you a tourney, and it's stretching winning you a game or two, but it is playable, and it's even extended legal..." (Mind you I didn’t edit their posts for spelling… Forum dwellers aren't always keen on their grammer.) Now that's cool. I mean that fact that someone came to the defense of Imaginary Pet is very noble. And to post a decent deck around a card that isn't very good is amazing! Go, Go Goblin Champion!!! Let's talk about the deck… This deck is a combo deck and that's for sure. Imaginary Pet and Okk play the same role - a big creature for a small amount of mana. Mind you they both have restrictions, but in a deck like this it doesn't matter. If you aren’t worried about attacking to be your main source of damage, the Pet is great. The combo?
Say you have an Okk in play along with Pandemonium and Equilibrium. You have the Pet in hand. You cast the Pet for 1U and the Pandemonium deals 4 damage to target creature or player. Then you can pay 1 to return a creature to it's owner's hand thanks to Equilibrium. If you choose to target Okk with Equilibrium's ability, return it to your hand and then play the Okk for 1R. Deal another 4 damage to a target and pay 1 to return the Pet to your hand. Repeat as many times as your mana base can provide. If you had infinite mana you could do infinite damage.
It looks like Goblin Champion wasn’t satisfied with doing 4 damage each time he cast a creature. So you know what he did? He added Furnace of Wrath! Now 4 damage is doubled and it becomes 8 damage instead. You could easily finish your opponent off in 2 turns if you had all of your pieces out. Backed up by Mana Leak, Unsummon and Ensnaring Bridge for defense and control this decks looks all right. However, I do have a few problems with it. It can be VERY mana intensive, even with the Medallions. Furnace of Rath has a triple red mana in it's cost. Equilibrium has double blue in it's mana cost. Pandemonium costs four. Aside from Chrome Mox, there is really no mana acceleration in the deck. When a lot of your cards cost more than three your early game can be painful. Plus, Pain lands and Furnace of Rath are bad. Whenever you tap your City of Brass with a Furnace of Rath in play it deals 2 damage to you instead of just 1. Same with Shivan Reef. And then there is my ultimate pet peeve - having more than 60 cards in a deck. This deck has 64 cards. Tweaking Imaginary Okk of Rath... I like the general feel of GC's deck, but I've already mentioned I have some problems with it. I am going to make this deck my own and turn it from a pure combo deck to that of a more aggressive combo deck. I will need to keep a few cards and thus the following cards will remain in the deck:
With Pandemonium, it is a global card. In other words any player may reap the benefits of this card’s ability. Because of that I immediately want to add Rayne, Academy Chancellor. Any time your opponent throws it’s own creature’s pandemonium damage at your head or a permanent you control … you get to draw a card. And thus:
Perhaps I just like the card so much I have to include it in every deck, but I really think this card will benefit you with at least a little card advantage. Thanks to Guildpact we have the Guildland for UR champions – Steam Vents. In my opinion, the Izzet dual land is far superior to any other UR land in existence. So with that in mind, let’s add some Steam Vents to the deck:
I know I said I didn't want to spend a gillion dollars on the decks manabase, but I think the Ravnica dual lands are a must for any player be it casual or tournament. I won't spend any more time talking about this. Just get the new dual lands. You'll be a better player for it. I like Furnace of Rath but I feel it is a bit mana intensive for a blue-red deck. It's like adding Ball Lightning to the deck. It would do well in the deck if you could ever cast it. Furnace of Rath is a card you have to time well, but how can you time it if you don't get 3 red mana in the first five or six turns. However, I would like to include one. It isn’t necessary to the rest of the deck but could seal the game in your favor late in a game:
Since I’m cutting out most of the Furnaces, I think it is safe to add in some more pain lands like Shivan Reef. I like the Reef over City of Brass because you have the option to add 1 to your mana pool or a ‘blue or red’ mana. Wow... am I going against what I originally said. If you don't want to add these guys to fix our your mana base, just add 2 Mountains and 2 Islands.
While this is a combo deck that relies on few creatures, I would like to give the deck a bit more of an advantage in the early game. Thus making it more aggressive. Let’s look at some of the creatures that are big for their mana cost, preferably on the cheap side (one or two mana). Remember that we are looking for creatures that have a high power since that is what matters to Pandemonium.
Gilded Drake has caught my eye because he combos VERY well with Equilibrium. Dandan is an interesting idea to include as at least it can block, but I don’t like the double blue in it’s casting cost. The others are ‘meh’ for this kind of a deck. Who want's to pay an upkeep cost for a creature? Plus there are better options like Imaginary Pet, which I already have in the deck. Red has:
Let’s not forget about artifact creatures:
Time to add more creatures, but not too many more. Cinder Wall seems to be the best choice since it’s a 3/3 wall for R. You could play it first turn and make good use of it. Or, you could play it late game and have an efficient cheap fatty to work with the Pandemonium and Equilibrium. Also, I have to include atleast a few Kavu’s in the deck. He works well with the rest of the deck. Plus, he can attack!
Looks like I still have two spots open in the deck. To try to keep a sense of cohesiveness, I’m going to add in another Kavu and another Rayne. Keeping your deck concise is important. Having a bunch of 1's and 2's of cards always make a deck less stable and much less reliable. Rayne is card advantage no matter how you look at it. The Kavu is board advantage no matter how you look at it.
Well, that fills the deck out to sixty cards. I hope I made sense during all of that. I'm not accustomed to walking people through my deck choices, but I feel it is important to see the throught process of putting a deck together. I may not have provided enough insight into my choices, but I hope you see there is more to putting a deck together than just throwing a bunch of blu and red cards together and praying it works. Let’s see what the final deck looks like:
Imaginary Pet makes for a good, efficient creature in this deck as long as you can get Pandemonium and Equilibrium in play. Even if you can’t, it’s still a 4/4 for 1U that can block most creatures on turn two and three. More decks for the needy! OK.. but I won’t go through the long and boring process of deck creation this time. I’m just going to post some interesting decks that utilize the Imaginary Pet. Might I remind you that these decks aren't tested. I am posting them for your reference in building a deck around the Pet.
Vortex Swallower is a deck that makes use of the Psychic Vortex. Together with cards like Turbulent Dreams, Ensnaring Bride and Boomering/Control Magic you should be able to fly through your deck and fly through your opponent's defenses. Remember that when the Swallower gives the Pet to your opponent, if they have any cards in hand during their upkeep you will get the Pet back to your hand. Or, you could just stifle the Swallower... Fun stuff.
This deck plays with Null Brooch, Dark Suspicious and Madness cards. The Familiar Pet is really just along for the ride, hoping that all of the other discard cards in the deck keep your hand empty long enough to keep the Illusion in play. Waterfront Bouncer and Psychatog are just ways for you to empty your hand and keep the Pet in play.
The point behind this deck is swarm your opponent with efficient flyers (thanks to the Thought Eater cycle of cards from Odyssey). To keep some control in the deck I've included a playset of Spiketail Drake and Spiketail Hatching which both can sacrifice to counter a spell unless they pay a certain amount of mana. For fun I included Hatching Plans and Claws of Gix (combo!). Hatching Plan is a new enchantment from Guildpact that draws you three cards when it is put into a graveyard. If you Claws of Gix it, you gain 1 life and draw three cards. That's pretty spiffy if you ask me. Since I didn't think 4 Hatching Plans was enough I included 2 Copy Enchantments. Sapphire Medallion is there to allow you to play more cards
per turn by lowering their mana cost by 1 for all blue spells. ...and now some decks not by me featuring atleast four copies of the Pet (sorry, no description for these decks):
Well.. that’s all for now. I was going to talk about the next card but it seems I’ve again run out of time. However, don't be dismayed. Perhaps you want me to write about a specific card.
I haven’t chosen the card just yet so you could always
persuade me in the forums. You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Most Popular Articles of 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Imaginary
Okk of Rath? 
It
looks like Goblin Champion didn't stop there with his deck idea. He added the
Ruby and Sapphire Medallions (from Tempest) to reduce the cost of his red and
blue spells by 1. Thus you can do the above except cheaper creating an
opportunity to deal more damage during your turn. 
You'll
notice I kept the three main combo pieces and the basic lands. I pumped up
the basic lands because basic lands are cheap and effective. Who wants to
spend three gillion (that's right... Gillion) dollars on a mana base for a deck?
Blue
has:
Cinder
Wall, Spark Elemental, Wall of Razors and Flametongue Kavu are all possibilities
for the deck. Spark Elemental is great except that you have to sacrifice
it at the end of the turn you put it into play. While this could be great
in the late game when you have your combo set up, I don't seeing it being that
strong. Wall of Razors could definately be a great substitution for Okk
but I want to review all of my options.
Now
we need to get some control back into the deck. Mana Leak – I like. Who doesn’t
like Mana Leak? Mind you that it can be replaced with Counterspell or any
of the other 97 blue instant counter spells, but mana leak provides the best
early game counter magic in the game and it's in Ninth Edition (so you can
easily get your hands on it). Also, let’s get Gilded Drake in there. The Drake
is control and combo all wrapped into one. When you cast it, you get one
of your opponent's creatures in exchange for the Drake. When you cast a
creature next you can just pay one to return the drake back to your hand to
repeat the creature swapping. Ultimately, you could control all of your
opponent's creatures and kill him that way.
Now
we need a way to get to get to our combo faster. I could use Spire Owl but I
don’t think it fits well in this deck. I could use some card drawing, but I
don’t like that in this deck either. I want something with power – like Sensei’s
Diving Top. It can rearrange the top of your library and draw you the card you
need when you need it.
The
final deck looks fun and a bit more powerful than the original deck by Goblin
Champion. It has deck filtering, mana acceleration, more aggressive creatures
and a bit more stable and less painful mana base (depending on how you look at
it). I will be honest is saying I didn’t playtest it out, but you can always
playtest it and let me know how it does. 
Sunken
City!!! Whoah! That's a card from the Dark... which is around the time
when I first started playing Magic: the Gathering. Who doesn't like a BLUE
card that essential is Crusade for the blue ciritters. If it didn't have
an upkeep cost, it would be AWESOMER. Yes, I know... that's not a word.
Oh well.