Well' I'm back. To my usual audience, which is no one in particular, welcome back. To those asked to refer to here due to my friend Wesley's absence, Nice to eat you.... wait did I say "eat"? My bad ;p Seriously, nice to meet you.
Well, easy simple day as usual. Went to school to attend a economics essay workshop. Wasn't much, but really dead useful. Emphasis on DEAD. Serious, this can help in a ton of areas I'm not to know yet :)
Now that the boring bits are kicked aside... we can move on to our tactic for today... KICKER! Yes, that mana-intensive, super-versatile ability that has been here since... well forever. Why is it so good? Simple reasons already explored by tons of people, to the point of AD NAUSEUM.
1. Combos with spells that cast them for free ( Cascade, Hideaway, Etc.)
2. Allows the player to make a decision... cast it now, or later? (Marginal Analysis*, hehe)
3. Makes space for other utility ( 1 Kicker Card makes up 2 slots. (Eg. BOMB, UTILITY))
4. Any other reason I'm too lazy to go into. :)
Alright, now that that is done and over with, Let's make something useful. 1st, in order to utilise kicker to a good extent, we need mana, and loads of it. 2ndly, that mana will force a colour, there is a need for some fixing. 3rd, we need to know when to use it. Therefore. To address them:
1st: LOADS OF MANA IS EASY. Ramp cards like Harrow or Khalni Heart Expedition make good ramp. For the not-so-budget conscious, a card like Lotus Cobra works wonders (I point out something though, don't play a kicker decker with something so ****. There are better options.)
2nd: Now or later.... This is easy. Use cards that drastically change power levels with marginal cost. (A card like Strength of the Tajaru is good for that.)
3rd: Other utility now then, what good is it when you have a good load of mana, and yet lose still? What you're after is a load of protection. (this means a good amount of counter spells, Buff Cards, cards that do something to slow down your opponent's potentially faster advance.)
SO, a given exmple is in order:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/323
The following decklist is an easy reference. How does fulfill the requirements?
1st: There's a good amount of ramp, even though it's not very fast. Good stuff.
2nd: Nissa Revane, Garruk Wildspeaker, Rite of Replication. All have good gains given a little investment.
3rd: Due to some time constraint, This will be slightly glossed over. Don't flame me for it.
Nissa's Chosen, Negate, GSS can't protect the player's life total. Jace/Sphinx helps draw into more options. Master of the Wild Hunt wipes out blockers, and provides a steady stream of blockers.
So now, given all these, the player has fulfiled all requirements of the Kicker Deck, to a large extent. But, being a deck created before Worldwake, it is lacking... Therefore, You can update it any way you like, an not be accused of netdecking. Suggestions therefore:
1st: More ramp. GSS may not be needed all the time. Take this opportunity to thow in a few rampers. A good idea would be Harrow, Khalni Heart Expedition.
2nd: More Kicker. HOw to call it kicker deck with only one kicker spell. (I recommend cards like Wolfbriar Elemental, Spell Contortion, or Strength of the Tajaru.)
3rd: Know your opponent, knowing the meta contributes greatly to the 3rd condition. For instance, you can use Spreading Seas in a meta filled with Mana-Intensive Cards. (eg. Jund, may not be applicable soon though.)
That's all I'm gonna cover today. Next update will include a homebrew decklist I thought up, Using the lessons from today :)
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