Winning Made Easy... and Inexpensive!

By Fetar, the Beloved


A lot of experienced players, tournament or not, make decks that cost an absolute pile of money. Half of those decks rarely win games. If you are not that great at Magic, or don't have a lot of money, then this is the perfect strategy for you. All you need are four copies of the following two cards:



Eighty cents and you got yourself a second turn win as many games as your opponent doesn't have a blocker. This should trick a lot of people and get a few laughs for you. How does it work? First turn of the game: Play down a Plains, and then tap it to pay for Tireless Tribe. Second turn of the game: Play a mountain, attack with Tireless Tribe (But only attack when they have a blocker if they don't know the trick behind your deck!). If they don't have a blocker, it will go through. If they do have a blocker, they will take the "supposed" one damage. The trick? Play About Face on Tireless Tribe at the end of the Declare Blockers step. Then, discard your entire hand to Tireless Tribe. You know have a minimum 21/1 creature that just killed your opponent on the second turn. Simple as that! Now to make a deck on it.

Realistically, all you need is four copies of each and about twelve Plains and twelve Mountains. Unfortunately, you need 28 more cards. If you have any extra red or white rares poking around (Powerstone Minefield?) you could throw those in for show, but the best idea would be to ensure your wins after they've lost the first game. Get cards that won't allow your opponent to block for cheap (Pacifism), or make your creature unblockable. Flickering Ward and Mother of Runes are great mana efficient examples of this, unfortunately they are a bit more expensive so you may want to go with Shelter. However, playing these cards will give you less cards to pump up the Tribe and take up more mana, but if you don't want to attack just yet or used up a card to save the Tribe from a Shock then you can wait until the third turn. Speaking of Shock, why not put some Lava Darts? If the blocker is only a 1/1, discard Lava Dart, and flashback it for free!

Ever since the Odyssey block, graveyards have gotten just that much better. Why not discard some things we can use later? Squee, Goblin Nabob is the perfect card for this, as is Nether Spirit, however they are both horribly expensive. Prismatic Strands is a great example and can be used if the game actually goes past the second or third turn. Embolden works just as well. Reconnaissance can pull your Tribe to safety at the last moment. As for extra safety, throw in some enchantment and artifact destroyers as well.

Now we have the following:


(NOTE: I don't think this deck is half as good as the ones below, too weak and easy to ruin)

Talk about costly... heres a cheaper version:



I happen to have a Battlefield Forge, but if you don't then do not worry, replace it with a Plains or a Mountain. Other than Reconnaissance, which really isn't that needed, the rest are all commons.

Now to get even better:

During the time in which I made this article, I bought the cards needed for this deck and playtested the deck. It works great! 50% of the time you have a second turn win, if you don't then Shelter makes for a third turn win. It only seems to work well if you go second, or when play Battlefield Forge first turn then no other lands. In mass multiplayer, you can wait until you need to attack and kill any player instantly. The way I have it set up is to have a back-up plan with all the extra cards. I have a number of mass-destruction cards and large white creatures just in case my first plan foils or I don't draw the right cards. Its quite fool-proof. Heres what I have designed, its a bit more expensive:



The best part about Shelter, is that it will save the strategy if you have to wait until the third turn. It protects the creature, doesn't let your opponent block it, and lets you replace the shelter when it resolves. The only deck that could counter this deck, is of course a counter deck. A Force Spike or a Foil will mess everything up, but not too many people play pure blue or this game would simply be madness.

The extra strategy in this deck is a common one, you postpone the game until you can get out the angels and kill for the win. Powerstone Minefield makes for a great stall against small creatures and puts the Lava Darts you may have wasted or still have to good use. Prismatic Strands will slow the damage as will Embolden. Even in mid-game, you could play a Tireless Tribe and save up cards to make another About Face/Shelter win. Just because it didn't work the first time doesn't mean it will fail the second. Eternal Dragon can get you the land you need for the expensive creatures. I also have two Glorys which I'm considering putting in, because I could discard those just like Valor and use them mid-game to ensure the win with an angel or a dragon. Anyhow, this article is getting long enough but I think this deck is tournament quality (with a few more Battlefield Forges), with the exception of Nevinyrral's Disk (replace with a Wrath of God type card if you are in a tournament that doesn't go back that far, Mageta the Lion is perfect because it includes the discarding aspect.) could work great. Maybe use the Glorys in the sideboard, and a number of blue hosers and you'll be all set.

As I said before, now go win some games!
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