A New Type II Deck: TurboZvi!

A few weeks ago, a message I sent out to my team members was posted, with permission, to The Dojo. In it, I warned that Type II was encouraging a variety of degenerate ideas. With numerous ways to generate large amounts of mana, cards and damage, I wondered what to do with all those cards.

I've figured out what to do with all those cards. This article will explain the design, evolution and testing of a new top-level deck I've been calling TurboZvi. Read on.

A few of the new Stronghold cards, like Mulch, Endangered Armadon and the walls are good on their own in the right deck. A lot of the cards are not worthy of constructed play. And then there are a few cards that could be called "mock cards". Basically, these are cards WotC puts out to mock the Magic players of the world, daring us to abuse them. Intruder Alarm has potential as creature control, especially by blue since it can counter additional creatures. Its main purpose, however, seems to be as an infinite combo, and I saw one in a tournament this Saturday, with the Bird/Drake/Firewalker combination. Another example is Hermit Druid, which is also useful in getting basic land (great in Sealed), but is also a problem in the Druid/Misery deck posted elsewhere on The Dojo. Pursuit of Knowledge was a mistake in bad need of errata.

One of the main things that has changed is that card manipulation cards are putting cards in your graveyard rather than removing them from the game. This is finally catching up to the game, as the number of such cards has reached critical mass. This is the problem with the Hermit Druid, a potential problem with Mulch, and the reason my new deck is possible.

Months ago, the Duelist published a preview card from Stronghold: Dream Halls. It costs 3UU to cast, and reads: When casting a spell of any color, its caster may discard a card sharing at least one color in its casting cost with the spell being cast instead of paying its casting cost. If there is an X, X is 0. Basically, this makes all spells pitch cards for both players, but without removing the pitched card from the game. My first response to this card was along the lines of: Are they serious? Any card? Discard, not out of game? Even if it was out of game, it would still be an interesting card for other reasons, especially in fun decks, (think Sliver Queen!) but instinct told me: This card is broken. I just don't know why. I'm sure I'm not the only one who had that reaction.

Two weeks ago, while sitting in class bored to death, I started thinking about Magic. I asked myself: Why is Dream Halls a good card? Because you win when you play it. Why do you win when you play it? Because you draw an infinite number of cards. Why do you draw an infinite number of cards? Because you draw more than two cards per spell cast. Why don't you choke on land? Mana Severance. Why don't you run out of cards? Gaia's Blessing. How do you mill Gaia's Blessing? Ancestral Memories. How do you draw more than two cards per spell? Three Wishes. Three Wishes doesn't work, but I didn't know that yet. I put in Sift and Inspiration to get to Three Wishes, and Recycle to make my hand bigger over the long term. Inspiration was the kill card. Half an hour later I realized I'd forgotten Meditate, and made that the card engine. I filled out the deck with two-mana lands and Lotus Petals to get Dream Halls out fast, and Inspiration and Impulse to fetch Dream Halls.

Then I started refining the deck. Recycle came out because of the need

for blue cards and the danger of putting too many cards into your hand

and leaving too few in the deck. The fourth blessing proved unnecessary.

I learned Three Wishes cards can't be pitched, so it came out for Sift.

I tried out several ideas from my teammates, but the only idea that made

it into my version was Scott Seville's recommendation that 1 Lobotomy and

Breaking down the deck:

21 Lands (+4 Lotus Petal) This is actually enough, because you really only need to cast one spell with mana ( Dream Halls), and for that purpose you have 12 lands that count double, giving you the equivalent of 37 lands. You can also Intuition for lands (or even a Petal).

Island - 9

Sac Lands - 4 Vein + 4 Temple Sack them only when casting Dream Halls, and if you're going for it, sac them whether you need to or not. Every extra mana counts.

Tombs - 4 You'll almost always be happy to see one. It allows a turn 2 Intuition, and turn 3 Sift, without any sacrifice, and helps you cast Dream Halls, especially with backup.

Petals - 4 They provide Green mana for Blessings during the combo if you cast Gaia with Gaia and draw Gaia three. They give black for the Lobotomy without Dream Halls (vs. Bloom or similar) and give speed. Preserve these if possible.

Gaea's Blessing - 3 Before the combo they're dead cards, and you never want to draw one. If you do, discard it with Sift. But they are vital to keeping you alive. Keep careful track of them always - if two are in your graveyard, and you draw the third, you'll need to use Lotus Petal. Two can give you a card in a pinch.

Ancestral Memories - 4 (Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put 2 in your hand and the rest in your graveyard. This triggers Gaea's Blessing). Vital to keeping the engine going, both by seeking Meditate and kill cards and to recycle your deck. My teammate Manuel called this card the true engine in this deck, and in many ways he's right.

Meditate - 4 The card that increases your hand size, the one you want to cast with Dream Halls whenever possible - which means you have Meditate and aren't in danger of being stranded without the Blessing /Memories engine.

Sift - 4 Effectively increases your hand by one because it allows you to discard a Gaea's Blessing or a land. Very useful before going off, too. Remember, most decks will rush you whether you tap out or not.

Mana Severance - 4 You must cast this quickly after Dream Halls or you will run out of steam every time. If you can't do this immediately, use Memories to find it. Also, this should be cast a turn before Dream Halls if you can, or with mana on the same turn, if possible. This may, along with Dream Halls, be a 'red flag' card that forces your opponent to adjust his play in a way similar to Squandered Resources.

Counters - 5 Use aggressively vs. aggressive decks. Use conservatively vs. conservative decks. Save if possible. This is one area where me and Manuel differ strongly. Many of the deck's problems come when it sacrifices colored mana for multiple colorless mana with Veins, Tombs, and in his deck, Vaults. I believe that this forces the deck to use Memory Lapse to insure that a color problem isn't a problem (8 of the blue mana is one-time). I also see Mana Leak as a less than reliable counter when opponents don't use mana to fight you. He sees Memory Lapse as a problem, especially when facing Aura of Silence or similar cards. So far, I haven't had that problem.

Intuition/Impulse - 5 Needed early to assemble the combination, and can get you out of a pinch if you almost run out of steam (get Meditate), or are in Gaia trouble. If you find any cards in this deck are unnecessary, or you want to play 61 cards for land ratio reasons (NOT recommended), this is the place to add cards.

Dream Halls - 4 The worst card in Stronghold, according to Inquest. Boy, were they wrong!

Kill Cards - 2 Use Lobotomy to check for threats and to speed up the process while Inspiration decks him. Inspiration is available for you, too. You could also choose other kill cards.

How does it work? First, you find Dream Halls, Mana Severance, 2 extra blue cards and a card drawer. Cast Severance first if you can. Cast Dream Halls, then start increasing the size of your hand. As noted above, use Meditate to draw, Sift to dump leftover lands and blessings, and Memories to reshuffle. Eventually (wait for 10 or so cards in hand) you start alternating Lobotomy and Inspiration until they either can't draw or concede. Game 2, you have a faster kill from your sideboard in case you need it.

How quick? I did a 25 game goldfish test, using the Paris mulligan rule. I ended up with a mean of almost exactly 5, a median of 5 and a mode of 4. It had two 3-turn kills in those 25. I have seen one 2-turn kill so far.

Only Monoblue gives the deck a bad matchup, and ProsperBloom is about even depending on the two sideboards - against everything else, you have the advantage. The deck is also extremely fun to play. Most opponents will concede once you show them how you kill them. The deck does not die once its hand size gets above critical mass - about 3 card drawers. You'll need about a day to practice, though.

Whenever you figure out what deck (or decks) you prefer in a format, you start to look at other decks a different way. If I'm playing a Necrodeck, for example, I might look for Armageddon, Disenchant, Winter Orb, creatures with Protection from Black, and fast damage. If I'm playing Sligh, I look for their first few turns, their early defense, their life gainers and their sideboards. This deck has three concerns: How many turns is its kill? How much interference does it give? Meaning, how many counters will I need when my opponent starts pitching cards to Dream Halls? The only cards that affect this are Disenchant, Abeyance and counters, and some SB cards like Pyroblast and Emerald Charm. Finally, how does this deck attack my resources in the first four turns? This is discard, like Stupor and Coersion and (gasp) Bottomless Pit, and land destruction, and Aura of Silence and Nevinyrral's Disk. Looking over the current 'top deck' collections, I have a serious post-halls threat from one deck in seven, and a pre-halls threat from one other (Necro). Also, remember that a splash of blue means that your opponent may not have enough blue cards to cast all his counters, and a splash of white means the same thing for Disenchant.

Right now, it's tournament record is 3-1, with a loss to Jon Finkel (which as Happy John pointed out is not always a bad thing), because I sacrificed 3 Lotus Petals to Lobotomize a bloom deck (backed up by Hydroblast) and there was nothing in his hand of note. Oh, well. One match I played a sligh that stalled on me first game, so I timed things to just finish game one in time. The other two rounds were four routine wins.

The ideal sideboard is left as an exercise to the reader - there are several good ideas, and mine is an example. Feel free to try other cards in this deck (Manuel likes Mana Vault, for example). Manuel's report follows in a separate message.

The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

Zvi Mowshowitz

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Date: Wed, 08 Apr 1998 11:41:14 +0200 From: Manuel Bevand onceupon@hol.fr To: Zvi S Mowshowitz zsm3@columbia.edu Subject: My turbozvi comments

Hey all,

This is for Zvi's attention. Zvi, complete your dojo report on the deck with this. That's what you asked.

"TurboZvi French version"

"Get the Combo" 4 impulse 4 intuition 4 counterspell

"The Combo Cards" 4 dream halls 3 gaea's blessings 4 mana severance

"The Manipualtion Set" 4 meditate 4 ancestral memories 3 sift

"The Winning Cards" 1 lobotomy 1 intuition

"The Mana"

Now why my choices differ from Zvi's.

1 - Mana Vaults vs Ancient Tombs

These were a major discussion issue. They add speed and mana. However they can prevent the combo from starting (colorless cards when you want only blue ones) and they are not usable early for intuition (which is not Ancient Tomb's case). Here are my reasons to use them.

• speed is essential
• vaults are usable after the combo starts, you can use a petal to cast one, tap it to cast others, so they can provide colorless mana to cast spells (especially blessings if they get in your hand).
• Mana leak, the new popular counter. With vaults, you have more mana, less chance to get countered.
• allows a 11 creatures/4 counters Sideboard. Very strong vs some decks
• No damage = less chance for sligh to beat you in the race.

2 - Memory Lapse vs Counterspell

Memory Lapse are best for delaying opponent and protecting the combo early. However, they suffer from one major problem. If your opponent cast aura of silence or disenchant, you better counterspell that, or it will be back on the next turn if you do not start the combo. After sideboarding, counterspells are a lot better. When the combo has started, lapses and counters do the same thing.

3 - The sideboard:

This SB is very interresting if people do not know what's in it. Put in creatures and counters vs slow control decks that remove their creature defense after the first game. Put only the counters in other cases. DO NOT put the creatures vs some fast deck, because Turbozvi has no board control and will lose every speed race. The combo is strong enough to survive heavy sideboards against it. What to take out? I usually take out Ancestral memories, Gaea's blessings, Mana severances and dream halls (that's 15). Some of these cards can be kept in though (like blessings vs Mill/Grinstone).

4 - 16 lands only

This was a tough choice. But with that many sacrifice lands and mana vaults, also that many impulses, I felt that lands were not very necessary. I'd prefer to have 4 impulses (for which I took out 4 Islands). It creates one problem, sometimes I do not have enough blue mana. Also, mana severance is made less useful (consequently it is less needed and you can almost start the combo without it).

Here it is.

Manuel