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The Magic Chest 14: Collapsing Borders

Collapsing Borders 3R
Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player gains 1 life for each basic land type among lands he or she controls. Then Collapsing Borders deals 3 damage to him or her.

One thing I really like about this card is that it's a red card with some solid life-gaining potential. That's not all. At the same time, it's draining your opponent's life. Assuming, of course, that you manage to make a deck that allows you to fetch basic lands and to destroy your opponent's basic lands.

For land destruction, there are plenty of options. Only blue has no good land destruction and black's land destruction is usually hard to splash. That leaves green, red and white. White is usually not an option, because Armageddon destroys your own precious lands as well, but in Invasion, white got a more selective land killer that fits perfectly in this deck. More on that later.

For fetching land, only green and white are an option. White has both Land Tax and Oath of Lieges, but both only work if your opponent has more land in play. So, green it is.

Let's start building the deck:

Collapsing Borders: They're useful in multiples, so play with four.

Global Ruin: An Armageddon which leaves one of each basic land untouched for each player. Add a little spot land removal to pick off any remaining basic lands and that should be enough.

Flowstone Flood: Reusable land destruction. I can't remember ever paying the buyback on this baby (one card at random and 3 life), but in this deck, I think it shouldn't be too bad.

Creeping Mold: It could be hard to cast after a Global Ruin because of the GG in the casting cost, but the utility makes up for that.

Yavimaya Elder: I love these guys. Even if they get killed before you can sac them for a card, you're still three cards ahead (one for the Shock or Terror that killed them and two basic lands).

Harrow: Another card that can fetch you two basic lands you need for only three mana. Just sacrifice a non-basic or a basic land you have one extra of.

Ok, the deck now has enough land destruction and land fetching to work, I think. As soon as you have three different basic lands, it should be safe to cast the Collapsing Borders. Your opponent isn't likely to play a lot of basic lands if he plays more than two colors, so he should be taking damage regardless.

What's left to take care of? Since the deck depends on Collapsing Borders, it'd be a good idea to add a few tutors that can fetch these. Some protection for the Borders when it's in play would be good too. Some protection against weenie decks wouldn't go amiss either.

Sterling Grove: More expensive than enlightened tutor, but the protection should be useful. Additional Groves will keep your Borders safe from Disenchant. If a Grove is the target of a Disenchant, you can always sacrifice it in response to get a new one or a spare Borders.

Wash Out: A good card, but in this deck, I don't think it'll be enough to stop a weenie deck, it'll only buy a turn or two, but you'll need more, because Collapsing Borders takes a while to do its thing.

Wrath of God: Just about the best way to stop a weenie swarm there is, but the two white in the casting cost bothers me.

Propaganda: In this deck probably the best choice. The land destruction makes it extra effective and they can be tutored for if necessary.

Tribal Flames: It'd be pretty good in this deck, but it's not really necessary. I'll put them in the sideboard because they fit the theme so well and it's always possible spot removal becomes necessary against certain irritating creatures.

Miscalculation: I usually don't trust conditional counterspells like this or Mana Leak, but with the land destruction in this deck, this is likely to be useful and can be cycled if it isn't. A few counterspells are probably a good idea in the sideboard.

Wall of Blossoms: It'll help stop one of the few creatures that get through the Propaganda and it doesn't cost you a card. What's not to like?

Sliver Queen: The deck doesn't need it, but I'll add one to the sideboard anyway. It should be easy enough to cast in this deck and who can resist Big Momma? You could add one of each dragon legend to the sideboard as well for fun. It would allow you to change tactics by siding six huge creatures in for your walls and Propagandas. I'm not going to be that adventurous with the sideboard, though.

Limited Resources: Players sacrifice down to five land and as long as there are 10 or more lands in play, no lands may be played. It could be used to turn the land destruction into a hard lock, but it'd require too many changes to the deck for my tastes. It's worth considering though.

Teferi's Response: Land destruction could be a problem, but Teferi's Response should be solution enough. Sacred Ground is an option as well, especially because you can tutor for it with your Groves. Those work against Armageddon as well, so I'll go with two of those instead of the Response.

Chill: To help lock down red decks. The Propagandas will take care of the creatures and the Chills should take care of the burn.

That only leaves the lands to be decided on. Worth considering are the Mirage fetchlands, dual lands (if you have them) and the Invasion lands that can be sacrificed for two different colors of mana. A few of those will help get the right color mana in a pinch and can speed up Global Ruin, which would destroy it anyway.

The finished deck becomes:


Anything to Declare?
4x Collapsing Borders
4x Sterling Grove

4x Global Ruin
4x Flowstone Flood
4x Creeping Mold

4x Yavimaya Elder
4x Harrow

4x Propaganda
4x Wall of Blossoms

2x Island
2x Mountain
2x Swamp
2x Plains
4x Forest
2x Grasslands (fetches forest or plains)
2x Flood Plain (fetches plains or island)
4x Mountain Valley (fetches forest or mountain)
4x Tinder Farm (taps for G, sacrifices for RW)

Sideboard:
4x Tribal Flames
4x Miscalculation
1x Sliver Queen
2x Sacred Ground
4x Chill

Have fun!

 
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