Deck Advice

[Mark Gardner]

Getting mana screwed. Maybe swap out the City of Brass and pair of Onulets for one more of each basic land?

[PermaStudent]

Are you actually getting mana screwed, or are you just ending up with the wrong mana? This is why I never use more than two colors in a deck.

But yeah, that looks light on land to me. Even with Birds of Paradise in the mix, because they depend on getting lucky with forests. I'd aim for at least 18 land cards in a tricolor deck of 60. Maybe even 20.

[Mark Gardner]

Are you actually getting mana screwed, or are you just ending up with the wrong mana? This is why I never use more than two colors in a deck.

But yeah, that looks light on land to me. Even with Birds of Paradise in the mix, because they depend on getting lucky with forests. I'd aim for at least 18 land cards in a tricolor deck of 60. Maybe even 20.

It seems to be a combination of the wrong color and not getting mana at all. The deck can run on one each of the duals, but sisters, cats, and strength are the only ones that require multiple specific mana. I'd rather run Incinerate over Giant Strength, but it wasn't printed prior to 1995. I have a set of Blood Lust, but they're 4th edition, and some 93/94 groups don't allow 4th edition, even though it has the same art/frame.

Yesterday, I ended up replacing Onulet and COB with a Mountain, Island, and Forest, and it seemed to run better. I could achieve the same, and even shift the turn clock back one if I do three Moxen instead, but I want to keep the deck at $5000 - adding three of the power nine would more than double the current deck value. I did a vintage tournament a few months ago, and ran 1-land belcher:

I took third... Force of Will wrecked my day. Losing Gitaxian Probe to the B&R list really made me blind when triggering mana production.

[David VanDyke]

It's been ages since I played Magic, but given that I recognize everything in that deck, I feel like I can comment:

I agree that tricolor decks are asking for a bad-luck (high-variance) train wreck. Most competitive decks I remember were two-color, or 2-1/2 (two primary plus a couple key third-color cards for later in the game using BOPS or some other rainbow source). They are fine for "fun and crazy" play, but I don't remember anyone every really making a consistently effective tricolor deck.

[Mark Gardner]

It's been ages since I played Magic, but given that I recognize everything in that deck, I feel like I can comment

That’s one of the attractive aspects of the 93/94 format: since the card are all from the first two years of MTG, all the cards are recognizable from the art. It’s encouraged to play with non- English cards.

Depending on the deck goals and construction, more than two colors is doable, and in a deck like Charbelcher, three and four color decks are not only doable, but hyper competitive. I’ve played mine in four colors prior to Gitaxian Probe being banned.