Well, I've built some cheap all-common decks. How about a cheap all-rare deck?
- Every non-land card must be a rare
- Every non-basic land must be a rare
- Basic land are acceptable
- Every card must have a magictraders.com/cardshark.com estimated price of under $1, or...
- Overvalued cards are acceptable if they can be easily found (i.e. in stock and ready to ship) for under $1
With those restrictions in mind, are there any good cards or overall strategies to consider? Or is it pretty much futile?
Cheap ($) rares are usually too expensive () and mana acceleration is usually rare and expensive (Moxen, City of Traitors) or common (Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual). It's unlikely that a cheap all-rares deck can beat a cheap all-commons deck, but for the sake of argument what is possible under these restrictions?
Entropic Specter is only a penny!
Most people blindly suggest new cards for decks. True contributors also suggest what to remove. It's not about what's good, but rather what's better than the current selections.
i think it is futile... but here is my take on your challenge.
a deck with all rares and basic lands - although the rare card is worth more than $1, it's total rares cost less than any other deck i could/could be bother to come up with.
it feels like 3 card blind this - come up with an all rare deck that beats this one and we'll work from there!
59x Island
1x Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
What the hell? Well, here's your deck:
19 Plains
1 Dust Bowl
1 Kor Haven
1 Eiganjo Castle
3 Sensei Golden-Tail
3 Leonin Shikari
4 Soltari Emissary
3 Lieutenant Kirtar
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Soltari Champion
4 Weathered Wayfarer
3 Loyal Sentry
4 Shining Shoal
3 Cataclysm
4 Empyrial Plate
All the prices were under 1 dollar on Magictraders. Yes, even Cataclysm (at 0.95) and Shining Shoal (0.56). I had to cut Eight-and-a-Half-Tails because it was 1.10. Oh well, them's the breaks. The two-drops suck, but options are...Auriok Champion, Auriok Steelshaper and a bunch of 1/Xs, which are even worse. The only good would-be options are promo and therefore not really Rare (Soltari Priest, Soltari Monk, White Knight, Whipcorder). Basically, it's the worst WW ever, but still a WW and will easily rape the rest of the decks in the format since it actually functions. Has nice piles of removal in Mangara, Lietenant, Shining Shoal and Cataclysm and the classic Empyrial Shadow+Clysm finisher. Ok, we're done. Now, where's my damn paycheck?
Last edited by Eldariel; 02-16-2008 at 05:11 AM.
Mana Tithe is not rare
info.ninja
Well, screw that then, Loyal Sentry (tough choice, Planar Guide vs. Loyal Sentry >_>) it is. For some reason I always thought Tithe was a rare. Then again, it was unnecessary bad a card anyways.Originally Posted by xsockmonkeyx
Mana Tithe is not rare
Some kind of white control could be plausible too. There're so many crappy redundant cheap Wrath-effects that it could almost be playable.
Beyond that, you could make a really bad deck for any colour. WW is easily the best of the bunch, since it actually has a gameplan and the cards actually do something - something you can't say for other piles in this format, especially since all manafixing is essentially banned; rare manafixers cost more than a dollar (or suck unbelievably like Castle Sengir and its ilk) and the bunch of cheap manafixers are all at common.
Now Im confused.
Tithe (Visions) = Rare
Mana Tithe (Planar Chaos) = Common
Which did you mean?
Anyway, Sands of Time and Equipoise both fit the criteria.
4 Sands of Time
4 Equipoise
4 Porphyry Nodes (not sure if this will work with Arbitor)
4 Winds of Rath (Rout was too expensive :/)
1 Magus of the Disk
4 Silent Arbitor
3 Mageta the Lion
4 Story Circle
2 Iron Maiden
4 Tithe
3 Tooth of Ramos
23 Plains
info.ninja
Tithe is too expensive (1.92 - almost a dollar over the allowed limit) - I meant Mana Tithe. Equipoise/Sands could indeed work, I suppose, although I think the WW would have an advantage with all the LD it has going on (Cataclysm, Mangara), and the ability to blast Equipoise or Sands likewise with Mangara. But yea, it's certainly one of the better decks you could build out of this format - indeed, the real options are decks with extreme redundance throughout the history of Magic (only WW and MWC really have enough cards doing the same thing to work) or some craprare combo supported by other craprares - multicolour just doesn't work either).
Amusingly, the best all-common deck would quite easily destroy these (that deck being Affinity with Flingatog, flyers and Plating - or just mono-red sligh, which actually isn't that bad for the WW), although there's something to be said about post-SB games with Serenity et al.
Game of Chaos
Basically a deck of luck:
Bottle of Suleiman-4 FBB 4th $.44
Game of Chaos-4 Ice Age $.44
Mijae Djinn-4 Revised $.44
Chaotic Goo-4 Tempest $.59
Krark's Thumb-4 Mirrodin $.79
Fiery Gambit-4 Mirrodin $.79
Mass Hysteria-4 Mirrodin $.59
Sculping Steel-4 Mirrodin $.99
Extrapalnar Lens-4 Mirrodin $.99
Mountains-24
All found on toadandtroll.com. All o.k. by Cardshark.com
I've accualy gotten extremely bored and tested a deck smilar to this on mws. The most I can say is that krark's thumb+game of chaos is very likely a win for you. And mana clash is like a cheap flame rift most of the time.
Giant Growth - not just lurking anymore
Closet noob.
Team Battletoads
(not affiliated with combat amphibians)
Wait a minute... Where's Goblin Bomb?
Why not just have a 9-land stompy posted here and that be the end of it...
Reminds me of my straight up coin-flip deck that people have wanted to kill me for in casual for a while. I've gotten more wins with that deck simply by saying "Krark's Thumb" on turn 2 and watching all other players in multiplayer and such scoop it up. Good times.
Team Albany: What's Legacy?
You cannot know the sweetness of Victory, without first dwelling in the agony of Defeat.
GL making 9-land stompy with under dollar rares only. As an all-common comparison, I'd say Fling Affinity is even more brutal than 9-land Stompy or Mono-Red Sligh. Having 4 'Togs and 4 Platings is pretty brutal in a rather restricted format such as that.
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