Scourge/Player's Guide decks
The Scourge Player's Guide was part of the Scourge fat pack. It included four sample deck lists to demonstrate how new Scourge cards could be utilized in Standard.
Milling/Killing
A blue deck with a Mill strategy.
| “ | The Magic slang term “milling” comes from Millstone, an artifact that grinds cards from a player’s library into his or her graveyard. This deck is all about milling. But don’t limit yourself to just grinding away your opponent’s library. Mill yourself, too, to put flashback cards such as Deep Analysis and Flash of Insight into your graveyard so you can play them.
This deck contains lots of little tricks. For example, use Cephalid Vandal’s ability on yourself a little, then use Cultural Exchange to let the Vandal work its magic on your opponent. Also, play Spy Network and follow it up with Predict to get rid of your opponent’s annoying cards and draw some cards for yourself. Spy Network can also tell you when it’s best to mill yourself to get useless cards such as excess lands out of the way. In general, play “Milling/Killing” reactively. Respond only to serious threats, and spend the rest of your time slowly chipping away at your opponent’s library.[1] |
” |
I ❤ BRAINS
An aggressive black deck with a Zombie typal strategy.
| “ | Here’s a fast Zombie deck that tore through R&D’s internal playtesting league. It was designed as an exercise in speed, the idea being to build the fastest black deck possible in the block. The deck has twelve possible first-turn creature plays and eleven possible second-turn plays. With any luck, you’ll also be able to play Undead Warchief early in the game, making all your Zombies more deadly. In the midgame, go ahead and trade your Zombies for your opponent’s creatures in combat. With Gravedigger and Unholy Grotto for recursion, there’s no need to hold back; you can just attack like crazy.
“I ❤ Brains” has a few tricks as well. Putrid Raptor can be a big surprise when you pay its morph cost and suddenly a 4/4 Zombie is attacking on turn four (maybe even 6/5 if you have a Warchief in play). And Call to the Grave can really put a crimp in your opponent’s ability to stabilize. In fact, if your opponent doesn’t have many ways of dealing with enchantments and you draw and play the Call early, you can take off the heat a little and dish out your Zombies a couple at a time. When one of your opponent’s creatures is getting the axe every turn, what’s the rush?[2] |
” |
Dragons’ Tomb
A black and red Reanimator deck with a Dragon typal subtheme and a "Wishboard" for Burning Wish.
| “ | R&D tested a version of this deck quite a bit, mostly because at one time Bladewing the Risen enabled you to bring back all Dragons in your graveyard when it came into play. That meant with this deck you could play Buried Alive, put Bladewing the Risen and two other Dragons into your graveyard, then Zombify Bladewing to put three Dragons into play on the fourth turn. Insanity!
Even though Bladewing was changed to return only one Dragon to play, the “Dragons’ Tomb” deck is still plenty strong. The Buried Alive/Zombify combo above can still put two huge Dragons into play on your side on turn four. If you have two Zombify cards in your hand when you play Buried Alive, you might want to put Bladewing the Risen and two other Dragons into your graveyard. If not, Bladewing the Risen, another Dragon, and a Bladewing’s Thrall is the best choice. With four Burning Wishes in the deck, you shouldn’t have a problem finding the parts of the combo you need. You can also deal with early-game threats by using the Wish to fetch a Pyroclasm, Chainer’s Edict, or Innocent Blood. And when choosing creature cards for Entomb or Buried Alive, don’t forget to move Anger to your graveyard so that when your Dragons come back to life, they can deliver beatings immediately. Happy reanimating![3] |
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Note: Patriach's Bidding was written as Patriach's Blessing in the printed decklist.
"Mr. Babycakes" Deck
A green and blue deck built around Forgotten Ancient, who was initially named "Mr. Babycakes" by Alex Freeman during the first You Make the Card event.[4]
| “ | Simply play Birds or Elves to play the Ancient as fast as you can. Drop a Wild Mongrel on the second turn if you can. Once you control the Ancient, defend it with countering spells and Æther Burst if needed. Eventually, you’ll move counters onto a Bird to fly over and smash your opponent.[5] | ” |
References
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (May 26, 2003). "Blue (PDF)". Scourge Player's Guide, p. 9. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (May 26, 2003). "Black (PDF)". Scourge Player's Guide, p. 11. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (May 26, 2003). "Red (PDF)". Scourge Player's Guide, p. 12. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 06, 2002). "You Make The Card Wrapup". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on June 25, 2022.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (May 26, 2003). "Green (PDF)". Scourge Player's Guide, p. 15. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022.