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The Magic Chest 16: Intruder Alarm
Although a heavy counter deck could use Intruder Alarm to keep an early weenie swarm at bay by countering every creature played from that point, that's not a very strong tactic. Against creature-heavy deck, it'd take too many counterspells. It's no surprise then that Intruder Alarm is usually only used for its second ability, to untap all creatures whenever a creature enters play. That can be a useful ability in a creature deck, because it allows you to attack and cast a creature afterwards to get enough blockers to keep your opponent at bay. Still, it only shines in combo decks. Usually, I don't like to make pure combo decks, because they can get boring to play against, but I'll make an exception this time. The concept is easy enough. With an Intruder Alarm in play, as well as two mana creatures, at least one of which can produce blue mana, Shrieking Drake can be used to get as much mana as you need. Cast the drake and use the comes-into-play ability to return it to your hand. Your mana creatures untap and give at least 1U, which is a net gain of 1. Repeat as often as you need. We need a kill method as well. Usually, if you're able to create as much mana as you want, Stroke of Genius would work, but it's an expensive card and it's not much fun to play against. Another idea would be Magma Mine, because it gets around Circle of Protection: Red and it wouldn't require splashing red. There's another possibility, though: Verdeloth the Ancient. Create a few thousand tokens and attack with them. Of course you'll need a Concordant Crossroads to pull it off in the same turn. Fetching Verdeloth and the Crossroads can be done by drawing your whole deck with Recycle or Prosperity. Recycle and Shrieking Drake have a lot of synergy, which makes it tempting to use them in the same deck. Still, it's a little bit over the top to use such a convoluted kill method, so I'll stick with Magma Mine. Intruder Alarm: A vital card, so you'll need four. Shrieking Drake: Another vital card, so add four. Birds of Paradise: You need at least eight creatures that can produce blue mana. Birds of Paradise is your best bet, but you can also use Utopia Tree or, if you can't afford the rares, Animate Land on an Island will do. You plan to win in the same turn you start your combo anyway. Quirion Elves: Another source of blue mana. If you want a (small) chance of winning on turn 3, you'll need to use Animate Land instead. A turn three win will go like this: Turn 1: Forest, Birds of Paradise Llanowar Elf: Another mana creature. A total of 16 of them should be plenty, while still leaving enough room for supporting cards. Magma Mine: The kill card. Force of Will: A bit of counter backup is probably a good idea. Spare Alarms or Drakes can be discarded to it. Fact or Fiction: I seriously underestimated this card at first, but a few people set me straight and after some testing, it turns out to be a very strong card. It's better in decks that use the graveyard, but at the very least it's an Impulse that digs one deeper in this deck. Impulse: It's probably a better idea to splash black for Demonic Consultation, but I'm going to stick with Impulse and Fact or Fiction to get the cards I need. 20 Lands should be enough. I'm using only basic lands to keep the cost of the deck down, but add non-basics if you have them and think they'll improve your mana draws. As a sideboard, I decided to use a transformational one. Combo decks aren't that much fun to play against and it's always good to pleasantly surprise your opponent with a bit of beatdown. Let's decide which 15 cards to take out first. Intruder Alarm and Magma Mine are obvious choices, they don't really do much outside of the combo. Shrieking Drake is tougher. Obviously, Blastoderm is an obvious candidate for a beatdown creature and Shrieking Drake can return it to your hand once you're out of counters. A 1/1 flier for U isn't bad either, although it doesn't do a lot of damage. I'd take out 3 of them, keeping one as a surprise Blastoderm saver and against Pacifism and Arrest. That leaves four more cards to take out. I like the blue searchers and even Force of Will should come in handy against Wrath of God and such. Quirion Elves aren't that useful, but they can help get out the third turn Blastoderm. On the other hand, Animate Land can be a surprise three damage from a hard to protect against source. I guess it depends what I'm playing against. A deck with a lot of creature removal like Shock or Vendetta can get a two-for-one on Animate Land, plus the first turn bird or elf will get burned immediately, so it's nice to have Quirion Elves as a backup to try to get to four mana on turn three. And if nothing else, it'll draw fire away from the big creatures. Against control decks with Story Circle or Mother of Runes, the Animate Land will be more useful. If I remember right, it doesn't get a color once it's animated, so the damage should be hard to prevent with protection. On to the sideboard. There's already plenty of mana acceleration, so the sideboard should be mainly threats in the three to five mana range. Blastoderm: An obvious choice. Hunted Wumpus: Could be risky against certain decks. Jade Leech is probably better, but that's a rare, plus I just like the Wumpus. It's a bit like playing Russian Roulette. Kavu Chameleon: Both black and blue have a hard time dealing with this guy. It's good against story circle and quite a few other color based cards as well. At 5 mana, it's not that easy to cast, though, so use only three. Chimeric Idol: It'd be nice to have something good at the three mana slot, but your opponent is bound to side in a way to deal with enchantments and artifacts. Since you're siding those out, it's not a good idea to add more. Jolrael's Centaur: Untargetable. And in combat, it's usually as good as a 3/3. Here's the finished deck:
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