[Deck] The Game - Time To Play the Game.

[Rag Man]

One of the most enduring things about the history of the game of Magic has been the sheer cool factor of creating a new deck. Now, I'm not one to say anything about originality, but I think I know a thing or two about coming up with some original (and powerful) creations. Some of my attempts have indeed failed, but like any scientist or anyone who is driven to succeed, you must fail to succeed in the game of Magic. I learned this the very hard way, with alot of five dollar entry fees gone into the pockets of others over the last twelve years. But I can safely say that the deck I am about to present to you is a deck I have been tinkering with for the last two months while I have been away from the game. It is built on the premise of one card from Urza's Destiny - Gamekeeper. Not too many people are familiar with this card:

The Game

Now that we know what the card does, why not try and abuse it? Now I know what you might be thinking, that perhaps this card just isn't viable enough because it might hit another Gamekeeper. Yes, this is true.
But...what if we were able to use that to our advantage? The truth is, this is a very powerful underlooked card in the current Eternal format. Now, let us take a look at the deck.

Official Deck List Updated - 6/7/05

"The Game"
by "Hollywood" Mike Keller

"The Game", Current

//1cc
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
2 Funeral Charm

//2cc
4 Night's Whisper
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Diabolic Edict
2 Naturalize
1 Regrowth
1 Dragon Breath

//3cc
3 Pernicious Deed

//4cc
4 Gamekeeper

//5cc
2 Decree of Pain

//11cc
2 Darksteel Collossus

//Land-Mana
7 Swamp
3 Forest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
3 Treetop Village

//Sideboard
4 Perish
2 Persecute
3 Tsunami
2 Coffin Purge
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Cranial Extraction


Here is a comprehensive look at the choices for "The Game".

Duress: Probably the best single discard spell of all time. A 4 of must.

Cabal Therapy: Better than Duress. The heart and soul of the deck. By playing Gamekeeper, you flashback the Therapy to Oath down into another creature. You hit another Gamekeeper, no problem. Flashback a milled Therapy...and repeat process. Sooner or later, this card will obtain you your win condition, DSC.

Hymn to Tourach: Just awesome. For two mana, you get two cards out of an opponent's hand at random. Could really put a damper on their day.

Night's Whisper: There are few black cards that allow you to draw so cheaply. This is probably the definitive choice, and two cards for two mana in a deck which depletes its hand early on is awesome.

Pernicious Deed: Probably the best board control card in the game...maybe better than Disk in the right deck. It's good here to halt the onslaught of creatures, artifacts, and enchantments.

Gamekeeper: The heart and soul of the deck. Like an Oath of Druids built into a creature. It's true...it does cost two more than Oath. But essentially what happened when the format was changed was the clock went back a few turns. And with early protection through discard and board control, you shouldn't have a problem resolving one eventually and winning the game with Collossus.

Darksteel Collossus: Your win condition. Only two because 3 is slightly too many and 4 is just overkill.

Most of the other cards in the deck or pretty self explanable...so feel free to test the deck out!

The rest of the sideboard is pretty much optional, but I love the way mine turned out over the last two months of playtesting. I hope you enjoy this deck and I hope you appreciate what it takes to come up with an innovative deck idea. When playing this deck, keep several things in mind:

1. It plays like Oath, kind of. You have ways of searching and restacking your deck to ensure you get a fattie with other contigency, utility cards. More often than not, you don't need to restack your deck. You'll hit a fattie sooner than later. Just make
sure you plow out your opponent's hand with discard.

2. Play it slow. Don't try to combo out unless you know for sure what your opponent is playing. Know you have alot of outlets to make things happen, and make sure you knock their hand out as best as you can. 99.9% of the time, your opponent will need to go into top-deck mode to pull the Swords to stop you.

3. If an opponent won't kill the Gamekeeper, then kill him with it.

4. You should be able to beat control decks with this deck. The bottom line is, there is only so many ways they can stop what your doing before you actually do it. You have everything you need and can employ to beat it. You play a boatload of discard as backup.

5. Before you play an opponent, fire up Motorhead's "The Game". You'll be so psyched to smash face, you'll be sure to win!


Hope you all like it!

"Hollywood".

[Peter_Rotten]

Quick suggestion. Since killing the Gamekeeper is essential to the game plan, why not include Cabal Therapy?

[Rag Man]

There you go man. 4 Therapy over Duress...DUHHHHH!!

EDIT: (Talking to self) Shame on you, Hollywood. How'd you miss that??

[LunchBox]

Cabal Therapy > Duress

As for using Gamekeeper: It's neat and all, but why not just use Pattern of Rebirth instead. You would need to increase the number of sacrifice outlets, but at least you could make sure that you hit a DSC or Slagbomb (or whatever, Akroma, Sundering Titan, etc.). Then you don't have to play Foresight.

EDIT: When I started this response, no one had said anything yet. My bad.



Edited By LunchBox on 1113499798

[Rag Man]

Gamekeeper is a better choice than Pattern of Rebirth because Pattern of Rebirth has an additional requirement that this deck is at nature suppose to lack: alot of creatures to enchant! :;):

[Di]

So..what exactly do you do when Gamekeeper is StP'd? Living Wish is cute, but it's blah. StP messes up your entire gameplan.

[Rag Man]

When I played it in Mask, it was a house, even you know that Colin. If StP is all someone can muster up to try and stop me from winning...I'll either Therapy it out, counter it, or Living Wish it back. Read above...you play the deck methodically.

Cabal Therapy (updated Hollywood Oracle)
Counter target Swords to Plowshares.

[Jander78]

Hmm....weird deck.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Why is Serum Visions stronger than Brainstorm? If you draw the fattie in your hand, you have no way (outside of Lat-Nam's Legacy) to get it out of your hand and back into your deck.

2. Intuition seems like it would be a powerhouse in this deck. You can Intuition for all three Gamekeepers to get them out of the deck so you don't hit one after it's trigger goes off. I would also dump some of the complicated draw cards (i.e. Lat-Nam's Legacy/Foresight) and add Accumulated Knowledge.

3. Worldly Tutor seems very strong in this deck, not only to find the Gamekeeper, but to make sure you don't dump a whole lot of crap into your yard and not end up hitting blessing. I'd almost like to see 1-2 more of this card in the deck.

4. Any thoughts on Dark Ritual? This could go allow for the second turn Collosus. I realize the mana base is streched pretty far already, but it seems like you have enough sac mechanisms already not to need cards like Phyrexian Tower/High Market.

5. Force of Will??

Just some thoughts.....but I like the deck idea.

[Ewokslayer]

Manipulate Fate should probably replace Foresight as you get to draw the card immediately.

[Rag Man]

Hmm....weird deck.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Why is Serum Visions stronger than Brainstorm? If you draw the fattie in your hand, you have no way (outside of Lat-Nam's Legacy) to get it out of your hand and back into your deck.

2. Intuition seems like it would be a powerhouse in this deck. You can Intuition for all three Gamekeepers to get them out of the deck so you don't hit one after it's trigger goes off. I would also dump some of the complicated draw cards (i.e. Lat-Nam's Legacy/Foresight) and add Accumulated Knowledge.

3. Worldly Tutor seems very strong in this deck, not only to find the Gamekeeper, but to make sure you don't dump a whole lot of crap into your yard and not end up hitting blessing. I'd almost like to see 1-2 more of this card in the deck.

4. Any thoughts on Dark Ritual? This could go allow for the second turn Collosus. I realize the mana base is streched pretty far already, but it seems like you have enough sac mechanisms already not to need cards like Phyrexian Tower/High Market.

5. Force of Will??

Just some thoughts.....but I like the deck idea.

Hey Rick! Thanks for the questions and interest.

1. Brainstorm allows me to dig three deep into my deck. It also can restructure the top of my library. With Brainstorm, by drawing three cards, I am more likely to draw into a fattie than Serum Visions. Serum Visions allows me to put a fattie on the bottom or top, and can give me a choice of what to draw into rather than setting me back a few turns like Brtainstorm. It gives me more options, and I like that.

2. You're right. In fact, I'm updating the list as we speak. I forgot about Intuition.

3. I actually had 3 in the deck at one point, and it was a pretty good choice. Just needed to cut back because it was was kind of like Serum Visions in a way.

4. Ritual is another good option. I will include it in the updated list and post testing results ASAP.

5. Not enough blue to support the cause, yet. Cabal Therapy and Mana Leak are sufficient enough because the deck isn't primarily blue in nature...it is green. Force of Will would be card disadvantage in this build.

[NeoMike]

Well - my only thought/s are:

- Brainstorm vs. Serum Visions - Wouldn't Drawing a fattie be bad? So Brainstorm being able to put the fattie back on top would be really good... Right?

- I think your mana base needs some work, but I'm not the one to suggest anything on it.

Good luck.

[Rag Man]

Check out the new list. Alot more solid, I think.

[cheeseman]

Why not add a few Show and Tells? The overwhelming majority of the time, you're going to have the upper hand on what permanent to put in play (Colossus>>>Mogg Fanatic).

50 Posts for me!

[Rag Man]

I like you cheeseman, you seem really cool. However, I suggest reading my sideboard first :D

I'm looking at Sundering Titan as well...let you all know playtesting results.

[cheeseman]

Is my bad :D

Still, I like them maindeck. Thanks for the complement!

[Obfuscate Freely]

I think you want more than 2 Intuitions. It's just so good in here. You can go get AKs, get the Gamekeeper, or fetch up 3 Therapies. I'd find room for a 3rd, and even consider a 4th.

(EDIT: I suppose this deck would rarely want to Intuition for *3* Therapies, but fetching at least 1 still gets you a sacrifice outlet.)

Overall, I think more redundancy would be nice. The 4th Brainstorm, the 4th Therapy, and the 4th Mana Leak are all conspicuous in their absence. Only running 2 Wishes seems a little weak, as well, since they require such a butchering of the sideboard. What to cut, I don't know - the Rituals, the Bloods, and the 4th Collossus all seem unnecessary to me. Cutting Worldly Tutor for more Wishes also seems to make sense.

I agree with others that the manabase looks shaky. It's also missing Ancient Tomb, which I think would be extremely solid in the deck. Powering out Intuitions and Gamekeepers sounds hot. Your deck looks more blue and black than green, so I'd try something like:

4x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand

4x Tropical Island
4x Underground Sea
3x Island
1x Swamp

3x Ancient Tomb
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x High Market (if these are needed; I'm not so sure)

I imagine that cutting Wastelands can be justified as this deck isn't much to take advantage of tempo and you can always use Living Wish to fetch one if you need to answer a Maze of Ith or something.

A big benefit of basing the manabase in blue is being able to change the Mana Leaks to Counterspells. It's also noteworthy that the changes I've suggested will let you support Force of Will.

In summary, I would tentatively suggest:

-3 Mana Leak
-3 Innocent Blood
-3 Dark Ritual
-2 Worldly Tutor
-1 Mystical Tutor
-1 Darksteel Collossus

+1 Intuition
+1 Brainstorm
+1 Cabal Therapy
+2 Living Wish
+4 Counterspell
+4 Force of Will (blue card count should be 19)

I am making these suggestions without any testing at all, like an ass, so feel free to dismiss them. Cutting Blood in particular might be dumb; does this deck need early board control beyond a quick Gamekeeper? You know better than I do.

Overall I like the deck idea. It's Oath for Legacy!



Edited By Obfuscate Freely on 1113513286

[Sims]

Well the primary reason for the Bloods and Tower/Market was to allow him ways to Sacrifice the Gamekeeper outside of flashing back Cabal Therapy, so I would be hesitant to cut them. Also, allowing yourself ot set up the top of your library with a fatty via Worldly Tutor is the tech when you are preparing to get rid of a Keeper, so why cut them?

Just a few things I noticed Ob.

[Obfuscate Freely]

Why is that so techy? If you have the time to do that, Intuitioning the remaining Gamekeepers is just as good. I just think that Worldly Tutor is such a subpar way to fetch up the Gamekeeper to begin with that I'd much rather run Wishes or Intuitions in its place. Perhaps the 4th Intuition would be better than the 4th Wish, however.

As for the sacrifice outlets, I realize why they are there. I'm just skeptical that so many are necessary. Between Wish (for Valley), Therapy, Deed, and the other search, it shouldn't be too difficult to set off the 'keeper.

The neat thing about this deck is that, like Oath, it punishes aggro decks for executing their strategy. If you can't quickly find a sacrifice outlet for the Gamekeeper, at least he will keep your opponent from attacking you until they have lethal damage ready. Thus I doubt the merits of running weak cards primarily as sacrifice outlets.

[asmoranomardicadaistinacu]

THis is Dan Lewis !-_-!, and I just got2 make a point, in deck testing, we have found that taking out the Intuitions & AK's for 3 Serium Visions and 3 Mask of the Mimic works better. Also can sub in 3 Divining Tops for the Brainstorms also adding 1 extra wordly tutor.
Against Goblin "The Game" won 3-0
Against Life.deck 3-0
Against Madness 2-1
Against TurboLand 2-1
Against Burn 2-1
We did not have a chance 2 take on Land$till. SO in this its a little more stable and more sound.

This is Hollywood speaking now: The addition of Mask of the Mimic is instrumental in the way I execute the "game" plan. The card is another outlet against cards like StP, Fire/Ice, etc. and is another way of getting Collossus into play. At worst, it's a 1cc instant which can fetch me an untapped 11/11 or another Gamekeeper, which would then trigger a search for yet another creature. Mask of the Mimic turns Gamekeeper into a double-oath, period.

Just for reference, here is Mask of the Mimic:
Mask of the Mimic...TECH!

Intuition is not as good as I thought it would be. The bottom line was this: through playtesting, I found that I didn't even need to cast it because I was Living Wishing for the alternate Gamekeeper or Worldly Tutoring for the Gamekeepers/Collossi in the deck. Tack that on with Brainstorm and the adddition of Serum Visions, with possibly Divining Tops, and Intuition/AK becomes wasted slots. Here's a scenario:

I have a Diamond Valley out. I tap it and sacrifice a Keeper. I just happen to hit another Keeper. What everyone is failing to realize, is that I still have the Diamond Valley on the board with a Gamekeeper OR Cabal Therapies in the yard post-Keepering. Bottom line, I will hit a Collossus sooner than later, period. The deck is a house right now...but much more testing to come from Team Headstone.

[Rag Man]

Here's the updated version of the decklist after playing it practically all day:

"The Game.dec"
by "Hollywood" Mike Keller

//1cc
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Mask of the Mimic
3 Dark Ritual
3 Innocent Blood
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Worldly Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
//2cc
3 Mana Leak
3 Living Wish
1 Gaea's Blessing
//3cc
3 Pernicious Deed
//4cc
3 Gamekeeper
//11cc
4 Darksteel Collossus
//Land
4 Island
4 Forest
3 Wasteland
3 Tropical Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
1 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Swamp
1 High Market
1 Phyrexian Tower

//Sideboard
3 Show and Tell
3 Perish
3 Naturalize
1 Withered Wretch
1 Gamekeeper
1 Diamond Valley
1 Maze of Ith
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Gigapede

Changes:
- 4 Accumulated Knowledge
- 2 Intuition
- 3 Brainstorm
- 1 Eternal Witness

+ 3 Mask of the Mimic
+ 3 Sensei's Diving Top
+ 1 Living Wish
+ 1 Cabal Therapy
+ 1 Worldly Tutor
+ 1 Gigapede

These changes made alot of difference in the tempo, search utility, and protection against cards that would traditionally harm this deck. StP is overrated against this deck, because there are so many ways of eliminating that threat, there's no need to worry.
Another thing people might have noticed is the count of 1cc upped a tad bit. I have Deed, Therapy, Mana Leak, Orangutan, and Naturalize to handle Chalice which, quite frankly, isn't seeing an awful lot of play anyways. I don't fear it, and neither should you. The changes really made the deck more solid.
Gigapede >>>>>>>>> Landstill, even by itself. It's just so good, and when I played it in Mask, it wrecked face. Just an annoying card for the Landstill player to face. This deck auto-wins against Solidarity...as you cannot deck me with Darksteel Colossus in the deck. It automatically gets shuffled back into my library, never hitting the graveyard.
Also, the manabase for this deck has worked just fine. There might some minor alterations, but nothing worth getting bent out of shape over. I'll report back to you all soon.