Today I’m going to betray everything I believe in. I’m going to sell out my own people—the Johnnies—in an act of cowardly power-grabbing the likes of which haven’t been seen since Gertrude the Nervous Milkmaid’s grandfather changed his name from Howard the Militant Vegan to Howie the Cattle Rancher. I will turn my back on the Johnnies by embracing the deadliest, most reviled threat ever released in our—I’m sorry, ever released in their lifetime. At the same time, I will abandon my other constituency, the sprightly, doe-eyed legions who enjoy casual Magic, by wallowing in the muddy goodness of a high-powered (and expensive) tournament card. I speak, of course, of Cranial Extraction.
（中略）
See, when I was pondering Sway of the Stars, I was still thinking about the Mindblaze deck. And what jumped out at me was Cranial Extraction. Let’s say I play Cranial Extraction to remove a key element of your deck from the game. Later, I play Sway of the Stars. You’re going to essentially start the game over, but with an abridged (and thus weakened) deck. Meanwhile, Sway has helped me by shuffling Cranial Extraction back into my deck! My deck is the same every time, both pre- and post-Sway (I race to 10 mana, removing more and more of your stuff from the game along the way, then play Sway), but yours gets increasingly decrepit as we go. As a bonus, the first Sway makes you lose 13 life, while it keeps my life total about even—I’m not even going to bother playing Sway the first time unless I’m in danger of losing the game.
How your deck works determines how many times I have to reset the game. I played against a Door to Nothingness deck that just took one Sway and one Cranial Extraction to end it. I played against a Zubera deck that took three Sways (and I almost pulled the trigger on the fourth, which I was holding, because I had 10 lands in play and was down to 2 life before stabilizing). When that game ended, the only possible threats left in the opposing deck were a single Thief of Hope, one Ashen-Skin Zubera, and a Hearth Kami. Every other creature and damage source was sitting forlornly in the removed from game zone—and the remaining Thief and Zubera were in the graveyard. That was finally the point at which a Solemn Simulacrum could swing in 4 times for the win.
How does the deck jump up to 10 mana? The usual way: Sakura-Tribe Elder, Kodama’s Reach, and Solemn Simulacrum. (I tried Heartbeat of Spring in here too, but it was never necessary.) How does it shorten opposing decks in preparation for the next go-round? Cranial Extraction, Eradicate, a Quash, a Splinter, and my favorite of the bunch: Scrabbling Claws. It’s a good soulshift countermeasure, but usually it just looks like it’s wasting time. My opponent doesn’t realize the future devastation it’s setting up until long after it’s done it’s thing. The inestimable Hideous Laughter keeps me alive and puts opposing creatures in the graveyard to Scrabble away.
The end result is a deck that uses plenty of the most powerful and ubiquitous cards in the current Standard environment—there are a lot of tournament staples in there. But the way they all come together to wrest control of a game and win are pure oddball. I just feel bad for all the combo decks that get in its way.DISASSEMBLY LINE
Creature (8)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Solemn Simulacrum
Sorcery (16)
3 Cranial Extraction
2 Diabolic Tutor
2 Eradicate
4 Kodama’s Reach
1 Splinter
4 Sway of the Stars
Instant (5)
4 Hideous Laughter
1 Quash
Artifact (7)
3 Scrabbling Claws
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
Land (24)
4 Island
6 Swamp
8 Forest
4 Mirrodin’s Core
2 Tendo Ice Bridge
60 Card
引用元
THE BETRAYER OF KAMIGAWA Posted in Feature on April 5, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/betrayer-kamigawa-2005-04-05
《頭蓋の摘出/Cranial Extraction》を軸にしたデッキ構築記事です。コンボデッキ相手にキーパーツを抜く、メタカードやサイドボードが普通の使い方でしょう。ここではメインデッキから主軸としている点が特徴的です。
ライブラリーアウトとして考えた場合、４マナ払って４枚カードを追放するだけでは、効率が悪すぎます。そこで、《星の揺らぎ/Sway of the Stars》によるリセットです。相手のデッキを弱体化した状態でゲームをやり直し、またカードを追放してやり直して、を繰り返すことで勝ちを狙うというものです。なかなか個性的なデッキに仕上がっているでしょう。
補足
『神河謀叛』のカードが関連したMTGクイズの記事がありました。
記事として取り上げることはありませんが、付記しておきます。
MAGIC: THE PUZZLING - BETRAYERS EDITION Posted in Feature on April 4, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/magic-puzzling-betrayers-edition-2005-04-04
MAGIC: THE PUZZLING - BETRAYERS EDITION - SOLUTION Posted in Feature on April 5, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/magic-puzzling-betrayers-edition-solution-2005-04-05
コメント