[Article] Eternal Europe: Deckbuilding Made Easy

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Interested in deckbuilding? Because today I'm covering one of my absolutely favorite ways to build decks, and one which also informs a lot of my whole way of looking and understanding decks and Magic strategy.
Sound good? Check out my latest article:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/23497_Eternal_Europe_Deckbuilding_The_Easy_Way.html

[Finn]

Eh eh. This is the same concept I referred to as Sock Theory deckbuilding in some article years ago. Interestingly, I began with virtually the same Belcher deck. It makes sense because the design is so evident.

You went much further. Good job.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Eh eh. This is the same concept I referred to as Sock Theory deckbuilding in some article years ago. Interestingly, I began with virtually the same Belcher deck. It makes sense because the design is so evident.

You went much further. Good job.

Great minds think alike, huh? ;) Would you mind giving me a link to those articles of yours? I don't think I read them and I'd like to compare notes/ideas.
And yeah, Belcher and Burn really are the two decks where this approach is most evident.

[Finn]

http://mtgsalvation.com/articles/writer/finn.html

If you do bother flipping through any of these, you should be able to see why our latest batch of articles have really interested me. Similar interests.

Looking forward to your next one.

[Mr. Safety]

Awesome! I am always looking for fundamental material, and this fits the bill rather nicely. I write articles for www.mtgfanatic.com with the intent of teaching newer players how to play the game. In the near future I will be putting together a 'must read' list of material. I hope you're ok with me citing several of your pieces of writing...because they are some of the best material I've come across on the net.

Thanks for sharing!

[CleverPetriDish]

Yeah, Finn has to write some more. In the article two years ago about power creep and the part about them making cards too good by accident, this kinda made me laugh.
...there will likely be a few missteps along the way...

Mons, I love Overmaster in your Grinding Station deck, even if you don't call it that.

[Mr. Safety]

Yeah, Finn has to write some more. In the article two years ago about power creep and the part about them making cards too good by accident, this kinda made me laugh.

Mons, I love Overmaster in your Grinding Station deck, even if you don't call it that.

Yeah, I jumped on Overmaster too. I was debating a white splash for Silence/Chant and then I saw this little gem. It is also an unconditional 'cycle' for :r:, and the last time I looked, getting cheap draw effects while protecting your combo was good tech...

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

@Finn: Excellent archive, funny to see how the format has changed since then. What you called Sock theory is indeed a specialized use of what I call slot-based deckbuilding. I think I'll end up reading most of your archives over time - as you said, similar interests.


Awesome! I am always looking for fundamental material, and this fits the bill rather nicely. I write articles for www.mtgfanatic.com with the intent of teaching newer players how to play the game. In the near future I will be putting together a 'must read' list of material. I hope you're ok with me citing several of your pieces of writing...because they are some of the best material I've come across on the net.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, and I'd obviously be happy to have my stuff included in a "must read" piece^^ Just make sure to link to the original articles as I'm quite sure SCG won't be happy to have the material used without them clearly referred to (not to mention I'm all too happy to have more people read my other articles after having become aware of the material thanks to you ;) ).

As to Overmaster, that sweet little piece of tech is something I became aware of some months ago thanks to ScatmanX sharing a rather similar PiF-list he and his team were developing at the time (something I didn't actually remember while writing the article, just now that you mentioned Overmaster). I don't think the listed ended up working out for them either, but Overmaster was one of the pieces that seemed neat exactly because it allows you to cycle it whenever you deem necessary, though it has some significant problems (because it only works if countermagic is irrelevant when it isn't targeting one particular spell of yours).

@CleverPetriDish: The deck in the article really doesn't have a name because I actually (re-)built it from scratch when writing the article so as to give an as honest as possible representation of slot-based deckbuilding at work. If you have something similar you're working on (I seem to remember a tournament report I read with that name in its title though I don't think the deck there looked all that close to this one), excellent and if the list in the article gave you some inspiration that's even better as I think PiF has infinite potential if only we can find the right list.