Lich Mirror

Lich is probably one of the coolest cards from Alpha that didn’t get reprinted after Unlimited. When you look at the card you can almost see how evil the card is, with the foul Lich in the art and a four black mana casting cost. So it’s not strange that a lot of people wants to play with the card. Read here about what you can do with it.

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Cloaked Ali

Ali From Cairo was once restricted in Type 1 for being too powerful, but in 93/94 we can play four of them so of course we should! The thing that makes Ali so powerful is that you essentially become unkillable if he is in play. The problem is that Ali more often than not doesn't stay in play that long, a problem this deck is designed to fix.

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Fork Combo

When Fork was unrestricted in 2016 people started brewing on many different Fork decks. The most successful use of Fork seemed to be in big red decks like CandleFlare. But the deck that got Fork restricted in the first place in 1995 was this Fork Recursion Combo by Mark Chalice.

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Reanimator

Deck by Gajol

Deck by Gajol

 

Reanimating fatties is a strategy as old as the game itself; and if something is as old as the game itself of course you can build a deck based on it in 93/94. The game plan is the same as with any other reanimation deck in any other format, you just use different cards. That means that you first of all need a discard outlet to put a creature in your graveyard. Then you also need some cards that let you put creatures from your graveyard onto the battlefield.

The cards that you have at your disposal for the second part of the combo are Animate Dead, Resurrection, All Hallows Eve and to a lesser extent Hell’s Caretaker and Reincarnation. To bin your fatties, you can use cards like Jalum Tome, Bazaar of Baghdad and Mind Bomb. Just mix and match as you see fit to make up you deck. When it comes to the big monsters there are some problems as most of the big creatures in this format have horrible downsides. But some examples of creatures that you can use are Nicol Bolas, Chromium and Shivan Dragon.

Another reanimation target is the humongous Colossus of Sardia, but then you also need a plan for how to untap it. A couple of cool and interesting ideas that have been used in the past is getting another one with Transmute Artifact or sacrificing the monster with the card Sacrifice to end the opponent with a big Fireball, or to cast another Colossus of Sardia.

TaxEdge

Deck by Mg

Deck by Mg

 

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

Classic words that fits this deck perfectly! First you tax your opponent with Land Tax and then you make his or her death swift with the help of Land's Edge. Or to put it in Magic terms, you keep your land count lower than the opponents so that you can activate Land Tax over and over again to fill your hand with lands. Then you use Land's Edge to throw those lands at your opponent face. This is the foundation of the deck but the other part you can build in two different ways.

One way to go is to play cards like Swords to Plowshares, Disenchants and Ivory Tower to keep you alive until you can kill your opponent with the combo. The other way to build the deck as an aggro deck with a bunch of small creatures and Lightning Bolts and use the combo as the finisher.

Another card that can be played is Winds of Change, as it lets you exchange the lands in your hand to actual cards.

MirrorBall

Deck by Martin Jordö

Deck by Martin Jordö

 

MirrorBall is an unusual deck that actually wants the player to take damage, but in controlled forms of course. Why? you may ask. The answer is quite simple, you want to use your life as a resource to put yourself ahead of the opponent and then use Mirror Universe to change life total with him or her. The main card the deck uses for this purpose is Sylvan Library but there are other good cards as well.

Channel lets you convert your life into mana and Force of Nature is a formidable finisher, especially when you can skip paying the upkeep cost. Last but not least, if you don't include a Force of Nature don't forget to put in another wincon that you can use after you change life total.

Eureka!

Deck by Kenneth Mossberg

Deck by Kenneth Mossberg

 

This is the Show and Tell deck of it's time and the game plan is simple; get to four mana as fast as possible, play Eureka and put a bunch of big creatures into play. For that extra surprise factor you can also play a couple of Concordant Crossroads so you can drop one with Eureka and attack right away.

This can even be a part of your main plan as Concordant Crossroads let you play creatures like Nicol Bolas who would otherwise be hard to keep around for one turn because of his upkeep cost.

The deck usually also have a plan B and that is to use mana dorks to actually hard cast the creatures. Another plan B that can be used is to play cards like Bazaar of Bagdad and Animate Dead as another way to put fatties into play to early. Last but not least you can also use Mana Flare as another way to cast your fatties.

Enchantress

Deck by Kenneth

Deck by Kenneth

The Enchantress archetype can be built in many ways but the foundation of Verduran Enchantress, Wild Growth, Fastbond and Sylvan Library usually stays the same. Verduran Enchantress is of course the engine of the deck as it lets you draw a whole bunch of cards if it stays in play. The cards you draw helps you build up a lot of mana which is later used to win the game in some way.

One classic wincon is to just Fireball your opponent to death but as 21 mana could be hard to reach the deck often use the combo Mirror Universe and Sylvan Library. Pay a bunch of life to draw a couple of cards and then change your life totals so the opponent becomes easier to finish of.

The Machine/Coffin Combo

Deck by Hardy

Deck by Hardy

 

These two decks share the same idea, are quite similar and sometimes use the same cards so we'll bunch them together here. The idea is to reset the counters on the creatures Triskelion and Tetravus, so you'll be able to swarm the board with 1/1 creatures or just shoot the opponent in the face for a lot of damage.

Coffin Combo utilizes Tawnos Coffin for this purpose as it remembers the amount of counters on the creatures it exiles. Therefore, the creature returns with both three new counters and the ones it had when it was exiled.

The Machine instead uses Hell's Caretaker to reanimate the creatures over and over again and use the counters on them between each repetition. That's about it. The rest is up to you!

Candleflare

Deck by Felipe Garcia

Deck by Felipe Garcia

This deck is all about cast huge fiery X spells right at your opponent's face. In the early game the deck focuses on playing mana ramp like Mana Vault and mana doublers like Mana Flare and Gauntlet of Might. Then, with a mana doubler or two in play the deck can use Candelabra of Tawnos to produce even more mana and when the time is right put all that mana into one or two giant Firaballs.

Another strategy that can be used is bouncing the Candelabra and Mana Vaults with Hurkyl's Recall to "reset" them and produce more mana. Last but not least the Candelabra of Tawnos can also be used with Mishra's Factory, Maze of Ith and Library of Alexandria for some extra value.

You can build this deck without Candelabra of Tawnos and instead go all in on the mana doublers and Forks, then the deck sometimes is called Big Red.

Twiddlevault

Deck by Felipe Garcia

Deck by Felipe Garcia

This deck is a fragile but powerful combo deck that spends its early turns developing its board with Mana Vaults, Sylvan Library and Howling Mine. The plan after that involves getting a Time Vault on the table and as that card is restricted the deck usually plays a couple of Transmute Artifact. When the Time Vault is in play the deck starts to go off by untapping the Time Vault using Twiddle.

Each Twiddle becomes a one mana Time Walk and thanks to Howling Mines and Sylvan Library you usually end up drawing another Twiddle, Regrowth, Recall or actual Time Walk to continue taking turns. While taking all of the turns you also slowly build up your mana to be able to cast a big enough Fireball to end your opponent.

To make the kill a little easier the deck often utilizes Mirror Universe and Sylvan Library to give the opponent a lower life total to Fireball away.

Power Monolith

Deck by Gordon Andersson

Deck by Gordon Andersson

This is a combo deck that utilizes a powerful combo which Wizards actually thought was to powerful and therefore tried to stop on many occasions by issuing different erratas.

The combo works by combining Power Artifact with Basalt Monolith. This makes the Monoliths untap cost become one colorless and as it still taps for three colorless you are able to get infinite mana. This mana is then used to end your opponent with a huge Fireball or sometimes the classic artifact Rocket launcher (but do remember that Rocket Launcher has "summoning sickness").

The rest of the deck can be built in many ways but it usually uses a lot of counterspells to keep you alive and protect the combo. Sometimes the deck is built like a toolbox deck that uses Transmute Artifact to get the right answers or combo pieces like Basalt Monolith and Rocket Launcher.

Trick Deck

Deck by Hardy

Deck by Hardy

 

This deck is all about resolving an Underworld Dreams and then letting your opponent draw themselves to death. Of course that would take some time if you don't help them on their way, therefore you play cards like Wheel of Fortune, Winds of Change and sometimes also Howling Mine. If you want, you can also pair the Howling Mine with Relic Barrier.

The deck usually complements the main plan with a bunch of Lightning Bolts which can be used both as creature removal or for extra reach so that you can finish of the opponent after Underworld Dreams has done its thing.

Sometimes this decks contain a couple of creatures for another angle of attack but it can also be built completely without creatures so you can play a couple of The Abyss.