INITAL SHOPPING CART

The two cards at the core of this deck are Psychic Venom and Seizures.  My thought was that if you could load a few of these on some hapless land or creature and then tap and untap that card like a madman, the game would be yours. Given a U/B deck, I naturally  wanted to throw lots and lots of Tims in; after all, he was the germinating seed of the basic deck paradigm begun lo those many(OK, six) years ago when I began playing.  So I began with Prodigal Sorcerers, Zuran Spellcasters, Mawcors, and Pirate Ships.  Rounding out the leveraging of the tapping cards would be the imps.  The options for tapping and untapping are Twiddle, Jolt, Enervate, Infuse, and Chain Stasis.  Icy Manipulator and Ring of Gix were inevitable, and along with Barl's Cage and the other tappers dovetailed nicely with the imps.  I absolutely love Diabolic Vision, and I'd never play a U/B deck without a few.  I wanted to throw in a few cool creatures which could be devastating if given the power to tap multiple times in a turn.  This brought Royal Assassin, Demonic Hordes, and Minion of Tevesh Szat (Untap him and he kills anything with toughness 4 or less!) into the mix.  I knew that this would be a slow, combo-dependent deck, so counters were vital, as were the Dark Rituals and Strip Mines.  Betrayal would be a great companion to Seizures(Every time I tap the critter, I not only inflict damage but also get to draw a card!).  Given the Timoids I figured Fatal Blow would add cheap guaranteed creature destruction.  Howl From Beyond and Terror added a crucial element of aggressive surprise.  I swear by Svyelunite Temple (That extra blue when you desperately need a counter makes or breaks some games.)  I sprinkled in a few other mana providers (If you haven't tried cards like Everglades and Rootwater Depths before, BE CAREFUL! More than a few can totally eff up your mana flow.)  I threw in Lotus Vale because I hadn't used it yet, although I had some reservations. When you think about it, this card doesn't give you more mana; it gives you color flexibility at the expense of possible mana burns.  Lastly: Mishra's Groundbreaker.  Turning an opponent's land into a creature would allow me to put BOTH of the core cards on one permanent, thereby maximizing the damage inflicted with each tap.  Unfortunately I only have one of these right now.

WEEDING

OK, WAY too many cards!  Start hacking!  I knew some Timoids and imps had to go.  Since the Norrit can untap a Timoid, I felt the extra mana was well worth it, so I favored him.   I generally like Jolt for decks like this because the extra draw is crucial, so some Twiddles went.  I shied away from Enervate and Infuse since they are single-purpose.  Now the really painful part:  saying goodbye to some Timoids.  I was afraid of having too many 1/1's (One Pyroclasm can ruin your whole day), and I don't like to play Pirate Ship unless I have something to turn an opponent's land into an island.  It took a long time, but I finally reasoned that the deck had too many components to allow enough untapping power to give the Timoids focus.  Since the Suq'Ata Firewalker is immune to red damage, I think he's worth the extra specificity in the casting cost, so Tim actually lost out entirely to him and the Mawcor (Even without multiple untaps, the latter is a dandy creature.).  Betrayal had to go; there just wasn't room.  In fact, in order to retain a semblance of focus I threw out lots of stuff I hated to see go:  the Royal Assasin, the surprise cards... wah!  Anyway, this process resulted in the Beta 1 version below.

Cards in deck: 63

BETA TESTING

3/24/99

I played four games against a brutal T1 Extended mono-black discard/Necro deck.  Surprisingly enough I won the first game.  My opponent's cards didn't really come up all that well, and I got out enough delaying stuff to hold my own until I brought out the Demonic Hordes around turn 6 or 7 and it was all over.  The next two games went as I had expected them all to go.  He trounced my soundly; my deck was too vulnerable in the early game to ward off the sorceries and enchantments that ground me into powder.  During the last game, despite the fact that he got off a wicked first-turn combo and made me discard lots of cards, I came 1 turn from beating him.  I got him down near zero by getting two Psychic Venoms on one of his swamps and tapping away, but he got me with Memory Jar / Megrim before I could finish him.

Thoughts:  A few more strip mines would help this deck hold its own in the early game.  Also, how about Benthic Explorers to give me mana while at the same time untapping my opponent's venomized land so I can tap it again?  Hmmm...  I'm seriously considering taking the Timoids out of this deck altogether, since I don't think that this deck is going to win through direct damage anyway.

Further thoughts: This deck needs a serious jump-start on the first three turns. The more I thought about it the more I realized how vital Diabolic Vision is to this deck. I desperately need to get to my Psychic Venoms, and that card is key. First I considered adding Barbed Sextants and Jeweled Amulets. The Sextant could provide the requisite color specificity on turn 2 even with only one land type in sight. For a deck this desperate in the early game, though, I believe the Sextant could be suicidally slow. I'm thinking now that there's nothing for it but to trade up to four Lotus Petals.  I concluded that I should add one more each of Diabolic Vision, Force Spike, and Miscalculation along with four Barbed Sextants, taking out my Timoids and Imps altogether. Then I realized that almost the only thing in the whole deck that would be able to damage my opponent are the Psychic Venoms and Seizures. Sigh. This needs more thought. Anyway, I plan to test the Beta 1 against several more decks before changing it at all.

3/27/99

First game: A wonderful first-turn draw and an opposing deck that gave me a few turns to get going allowed me to trounce it soundly with two Psychic Venoms and the Icy.  Second game: Aaaaarrggh, my #1 Magic pet peeve: My opponent got a Dark Ritual for a Hippie on turn 1. My deck never recovered. This emphasizes its vulnerability to fast decks and discard decks. Not that ANY deck particularly loves them. Anyway, I'm now leaning even further towards taking out some of my creatures and adding Force Spikes and Lotus Petals. I just don't think this deck is going to win with Tims.  I'm also considering trying a little discard stuff myself.

Deck Management: Tinker could be perfect for this deck. I could use it to grab the Icies, the Rings of Gix, and the Mishra's Groundbreakers. And if I'm going to use it, I might as well throw in 1 Feldon's Cane and an Aladdin's Lamp for deck management. Say, NOW the Barbed Sextant might be worth it! In addition to upping the odds of a turn-2 Diabolic Vision, it can act as fodder for the Tinker. Also, If I'm upping the Diabolic Visions, along with the Tinker to get Aladdin's Lamp out, this equates to enhanced deck management. Therefore I might want to ease off on the Jolt and put in some of the much faster Twiddle.

Countermagic: Mana Leak! I forgot about this card! This could give me crucial turn-2 countermagic. Also, I really should keep focusing on Power Sink as a companion to Psychic Venom. It not only stops a spell, but forces my opponent to tap the Venomed land. Also: Merchant Scroll! The current version of the deck has nine blue fast spells; I could put in three Scrolls and take some of these out!

Deck Tweaking I should start keeping a tally sheet during each game, with columns like "Man, I wish I had a Twiddle instead of that Jolt", "....Ring of Gix / Icy", "...Counterspell / Mana Leak / Arcane Denial / Force Spike " to check off. This would be a great deck tweaking tool.

That's all well and good, BUT... Even with all these wonderful thoughts, I think a beatdown deck would still kick my ass. This might actually dovetail in the mental direction in which this deck is moving, because I could take out critters altogether, then sprinkle some red leveling (Pyroclasm, etc.)