Magic the Gathering Saga of an Englishman in America: Land Destruction

I intend to write a series of articles about my Magic the Gathering memories of my time while living in the United States of America during the period of March 1994 – September 1995.

This of course was a very exciting time for Magic players and I’m so glad that I was in the right place at the right time to enjoy all of it.

The articles will be in no particular order and will be picked out of my brain when its behaving itself and letting me remember.

I attended a ‘T1’ tournament in Tempe, AZ around February 1995. ‘T1’ then was essentially what ‘Vintage’ is now. Land Destruction was actually a valid deck to compete with then, although it was horrible to play against and really played against the whole spirit of the game. But Wizards of the Coast designed these cards so why shouldn’t we create a theme deck around it?

I will try my best to detail the fundamentals of the deck but as this was 23 years ago I may leave something out.

Synergy

The Land Destroyers:
4 Sinkhole, 4 Ice Storm, 4 Stone Rain, 4 Strip Mine

These are essentially the core of the deck. You need at least TWO of these cards in your initial draw to stifle your opponent’s deck before it can gain any real momentum.

The Creatures:
4 Juggernaut

Juggernauts are quick, easy and rather large creatures requiring just FOUR mana to cast. If your opponent has managed to get any creatures they are likely to be smaller than a 5/3.

The Defence:
4 Lightning Bolt, 2 The Abyss

Lightning Bolts for those pesky small critters that may sneak out. The Abyss makes sure that a creature dies every turn, but not your Juggernauts as they are Artifact creatures.

The Nasties:
4 Black Vise, 4 Howling Mine

Black Vise was not on the restricted list at this time. In conjunction with an early an Sinkhole, this was 3 damage per turn to your opponent.

Howling Mine’s were used to give yourself and more importantly your opponent more cards to make the Black Vise’s more potent.

The Utilities:
1 Demonic Tutor, 1 Regrowth

Essential tutor and card re-use!

The Power:
Black Lotus, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby

By this time I had managed to buy all the Power 9 cards, they were not the ridiculous prices that they are today. You just had to use them as they made your deck so much faster.

Dual lands were not a big deal in 1995. They really didn’t cost so much and everyone had a full set of them (40 cards). This deck emphasized more on Green, Red and Black.

Don't ask me about the sideboard! I don't think I had one, it just wasn't that serious.

So did this deck deliver?

You really had to pull at least one of the ‘Land Destroyers’ in your draw for the deck to start working, preferably a Sinkhole. At least one Mox in your draw really helped it get going quickly. If the deck gained momentum it really was curtains for your opponent.

The Tournament

I can't remember the first round, but I must have won!

The second round I played a guy with a 300 card deck, literally his deck was un-sleeved and enormous. Some people really didn’t take the game very seriously in those days. How he managed to get to the second round is beyond me.

Round THREE I was pitted against a very fast white weenie deck which outpaced me and kicked my ass, 2/1. White weenie was a popular theme at the time.

How would this deck stand up today? Probably not very well, it was not fast and was dependant on the opponent deck being likewise. It was great to play and bad to play against.

This is a STEEM reprint of a post from 2 years ago.. - I never did continue with this series, as nobody seemed to give a damn. Maybe I could do something on HIVE at some point in the future.

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