[Discussion] Build a deck with old cards?

[Toby]

I stopped playing Magic a couple of years ago, and stopped buying cards when Stronghold was around. I only really spent money on cards in the time from Ice Age to Visions (seems like it was 10 years ago - it is!), so that's what I mostly own.
I'd like to get back into the game on a small scale, couple of games/tournaments a year. Standard, extended or vintage formats are not an option (don't want to spend a significant amount of money on cards), which leaves Legacy.

Now the big question is whether it is possible to build a Legacy deck I can have fun with (my definition of fun is not being totally whacked every game, I don't plan on winning tournaments) with these old cards of mine. I hate blue and don't like black, most of my decks have used green and focused on creatures. The last deck I used for casual play was red/green, Juggernauts, Erhnam Djinns, a couple of small creatures and some burn. It's definitely too slow for the current environment, but might serve as a starting point? Other deck types I like and could easily assemble is White Weenie and Erhnamgeddon, with Erhnamgeddon being too slow, and the current incarnations of White Weenie being heavy on rather recent cards.

As a result of this I feel a little lost. I'd be glad about any help on building a not totally crappy deck out of old cards. If I get as answer that Magic is all about buying cards then that's fine, but I'd rather not play Magic than spend more money on it. :smile:

[Firebrothers]

Have you looked at trading at all? Alot of people may like the older cards and you could just pick a deck and try and trade for all the cards you want/need. Or just assemble prosbloom (since your cards are from that era) it could be a viable combo especially if your meta doesn't expect it.

[C.P.]

I personally built this deck when I was trying to come back from loss of my entire collection. I think you can build something simillar to this, and it is pretty decent.

R/G beatdown with old cards

4 Jackal Pup
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kird Ape

4 River boa
4 Muscle sliver(I know, just play any decent 2 drops you can find. Mire boa, maybe?)
3 Fireslinger

4 Squarta Lancer

4 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Shock
2 Fireblast

11 Mountain
9 Forest

It was something like this. SB contained Uktabi Oranutan and some other green enchantment/artifact hate. It might not look like much, it is certainly a good start point, I think.

Or, as firebrothers suggested, you can play Prosbloom, but the deck does not function without some money. If you still have your full set of Force of Wills, you can try Mono Blue Control as well.


My all time favorite old budget deck looks like this - but you might not have the cards for it...

4 Carnophage
4 Sarcomancy

4 Black Knight
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Order of Ebon Hand

4 Duress (this is a Saga card, but It is so good that you must have it. It's a common anyway)
4 Hymn to Torach

4 Diabolic edict
4 Terror (or vendetta if you can find one)

4 Dark Ritual
2 Kaervec's Spite

18 Swamp


2cc slots have lots of other cards(Fallen Askari, for example), so you can just play thoses if you don't have the cards above.
Sewer Rats is another cards that is worth a try.

[Anarky87]

I remember I used to smack my scrubby meta around awhile back with a mono black aggro deck, using Dark Confidant and Umezawa's Jitte. Was something like:

4 Carnophage
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Black Knight
4 Dark Confidant

4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
3 Umezawa's Hitte
3 Diabolic Edict

18 Swamps

Until I put it away and started buildling real Legacy decks, it was undefeated. Though mostly in part due to people in my area not building good decks. The only money cards in their are Confidant and Jitte, which will cost you some cash or you could trade for them if you have some good stuff. Aside from those rares, everything else is crap commons and uncommons, but Jitte + Shadow dudes + Scrubby meta = Lots of in-store credit.

[Toby]

I saw ProsBloom in action at Pro Tour Paris back in '97, but I don't have all the cards required, don't like blue, and have never been much of a combo player. That R/G one is along the lines of what I had in mind, mono-black does also look interesting.
Does anyone still play Mishra's Factories, or does the fact that they need mana to turn them into creatures slow the deck down too much? How about Nekrataal for the mono black, too expensive?

[laststepdown]

Trust me when I say that Mishra's Factory still sees much play.

Welcome to The Source.

[Bongo]

How many duals do you own? Are Fetchlands an option?

This is one of the biggest questions. Without a good manabase, you run the risk of scrubbing out because of manascrew.
If those cards are out of your reach, I recommend going mono-color.

My suggestion would be Sligh or Burn (aside from Chain Lightnings the cards are very easy to obtain).

[Toby]

How many duals do you own? Are Fetchlands an option?
That's indeed a problem - I think I have two Savannahs lying at home, but that's it (sold my Taigas a long time ago, not considering that they would go up in price 250%). So mono red or black would probably be the way to go.

[Nydaeli]

You should look into Terrageddon. You could probably convert your old Erhnamgeddon deck to a version of it without too much difficulty. This list has done pretty well in Europe:

// Creatures
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Werebear
4 Terravore
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Eternal Witness
1 Genesis

// Spells
4 Armageddon
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Life from the Loam
3 Solitary Confinement

// Lands
4 Tranquil Thicket
2 Secluded Steppe
1 Nantuko Monastery
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
1 Plains
4 Savannah
3 Wooded Foothills

I'd imagine a budget version of the deck would be pretty good as well, as long as you can get your hands on Confinements and Loams.

[Toby]

After some thinking and looking around, I came up with two decks. Both contain Jitte, which I would have to buy, but then it's quite powerful... The first deck is R/G:

4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Jackal Pup
4 Kird Ape
4 River Boa
4 Muscle Sliver
2 Suq'Ata Lancer
2 Erhnam Djinn

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Umezawa's Jitte

10 Forest
10 Mountain
4 Mishra's Factory

I'm not sure about the Lancers and the Erhnies. 24 lands is a lot, but then there's the Mishras, I'm afraid of mana screw and need both forests and mountains for the Kird Apes. An alternative might be replacing the Mishras with more creatures and going to 22 or 20 lands. I also have a Berserk that could replace a Jitte, but then it might not be useful with lots of small critters, and I didn't put any Giant Growths in the deck. Sideboard would contain Naturalizes, I'm not sure what else. Making this deck mono-red might seem logical, but I don't know how to fill in the creature slots.

Replacing the green with white would lead to something like this, similar to what got played a lot during the extended worlds:

4 Savannah Lions
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Silver Knight
2 Serra Angel

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Swords to Plowshares

10 Plains
10 Mountain
4 Mishra's Factory

This would also require the acquisition of Isamarus. Once again, the Mishras could be replaced with more creatures. The deck only has 56 cards - there's a couple of options for filling the empty slots. Goblin Legionnaire, White Knight, Longbow Archers, Shadow guys...

Let me know what you think.

[C.P.]

Upper version looks better, because the lower one is crying for manascrew. Playing a WW creature without any kind of dual land is suboptimal. In the upper version, I'm a big fan of the lancer but he is not that great. If you can get your hand to Burning Tree Sharman or Troll acetic, go with those instead of Erhney and the Lancer. Muscle sliver was just there for an example of good 2 drop. If you can get them, there are better cretures(commons to boot) to use.

EDIT: How Many berserks do you have? You might be able to squeeze couple in with some pump effect. I'm not sure how good would it be, though.

[Toby]

I also favour the red-green deck. The shaman looks good. Any hints on an alternative for the Muscle Slivers? Getting commons is no problem.

I just stumbled across this deck (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=6582183) in the Deck-O-Pedia, which is R/G, but adds acceleration with Quirion Sentinel and Elvish Spirit Guide, as well as pump with Rancor and Reckless Charge. I get the feeling that the pump might give some much-needed "Ooomph" against heavier opposition.

Wooded Foothills might also improve the deck quite a bit, helping against mana screw and thinning the deck. Darn, I'm getting ready to spend money...

[C.P.]

I also favour the red-green deck. The shaman looks good. Any hints on an alternative for the Muscle Slivers? Getting commons is no problem.

I just stumbled across this deck (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=6582183) in the Deck-O-Pedia, which is R/G, but adds acceleration with Quirion Sentinel and Elvish Spirit Guide, as well as pump with Rancor and Reckless Charge. I get the feeling that the pump might give some much-needed "Ooomph" against heavier opposition.

Wooded Foothills might also improve the deck quite a bit, helping against mana screw and thinning the deck. Darn, I'm getting ready to spend money...

Fetchlands will cost you quite a bit...If you want to keep it a budget deck, just play with basics...:wink:

Rancor + Charge will change the deck around quite a bit. It depend on your personal taste, but if control is prevalant in you meta, don't go for it.

Some good 2 mana drops: Mire Boa, Scab Clan Mauler, Humble Budoka (he's fun!), and many others. it all comes down to your personal taste.

[Toby]

Next attempt, now with pump:

4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Jackal Pup
4 Scab-Clan Mauler
4 Burning-Tree Shaman
4 Silhana Ledgewalker

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Rancor
3 Reckless Charge
1 Berserk
2 Umezawa's Jitte

9 Forest
9 Mountain

I removed the Mishras to put in some more creatures. Having the same number of forests and mountains is debatable, 8/10 might be better? The Ledgewalker seems a good choice with all the pump (though I've read other opinions in the green stompy thread), and the Burning-Tree Shamans and the two Jittes would be the only Rares I'd need to acquire. The Maulers and the Shamans could maybe be replaced by Fallow Wurms and Harvest Wurms. Going to 20 lands and removing the Jittes would make it a real budget deck...

[Bongo]

9 Forest
9 Mountain


Bad manabase.
Not to discourage you, but you really should stick to one color if you don't have the necessary duals and fetches. You're going to lose quite a few games because you can't cast the right spells at the right time.

Judging from your preferences, I recommend going mono-red. Since your creatures are very weak compared to other decks, I would focus on the burn spells:


Bongo Burn

4 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Spark Elemental
4 Incinerate
4 Magma Jet
4 Price of Progress
4 Flamebreak

20 Mountain

This is quite viable, fun and easy to assemble.

[Toby]

Judging from your preferences, I recommend going mono-red. Since your creatures are very weak compared to other decks, I would focus on the burn spells:
If I'd add four fetchlands, what creatures would you suggest? Burn never really tickled my fancy...

[mogote]

Did you consider selling or trading the Berserk? This way you could try to get some combination of Wooded Foothills/ Taigas which really would make the RG deck more stable.

Wild Mongrel would be a decent 2-drop as well.

[Toby]

No way, the Berserk is my pride and joy. :smile: I'd rather spend the money for the fetchlands. Wild Mongrel looks good, and I think about using Elvish Spirit Guide and Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, dropping the Moggs.

[C.P.]

No way, the Berserk is my pride and joy. :smile: I'd rather spend the money for the fetchlands. Wild Mongrel looks good, and I think about using Elvish Spirit Guide and Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, dropping the Moggs.

Never underestimate the Moggs. They win you more games than you would ever think. As long as you play less color intensively, you can manage with Basic Lands. If you going to put the money on the fetches and duals, you might as well just build a competent legacy deck...:rolleyes: