Old School Blue Deck, Tweaks?

NMOY · Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 8

Hey all,

I played magic pretty hardcore in my youth, and now some old buddies are getting back into it for fun. I gave away all my cards ages ago, but have a ton on the way from ebay.

I want to build an old-school (iceage/4th edition primarily) blue deck based around control-aggro, and wanted to see what you guys think about the following:

16 Island
4 Rishadan Port

4 Psychic Venom
4 Mana Short
4 Errant Minion
3 Soul Barrier
2 Erosion
2 Drain Power
1 High Tide
1 Brainstorm

4 Merfolk Looter
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Lord of Atlantis
2 Gulf Squid
2 Air Elemental
1 wall of air
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The main course of action is to get Psychic Venom on opponents lands, and Errant Minion on their creatures (and soul barrier into play) Then, Mana Short and Drain Power force the player to tap their land, causing them damage, and cutting off their resources. The Erosions helps add to the mess, cutting down their mana options further.

On the creature side I'm going merfolk -- low play cost, and great powers. I'll be able to use the looters if needed to swap out cards, the Sovereigns buff all merfolk and if I tap them, give all other merfolk trample (woot), and the lords of atlantis also buff the other merfolk +island walk. Merror Reejerey also buffs my other merfolk and lets me tap others lands for more venom damage.

Besides that, the gulf squids rock because it forces my opponent to tap their land when it comes in to play (causing psyhic venom damage), and the air elemental and wall of air give me a little defense against flying.

So--- what do you think? where are my holes and flaws, where does it shine? I know that the pychic venom/mana short combo is sound, but I'm worried I don't have enough to protect against a spell-heavy opponent with direct damage -- as I have no counterspells of any kind.

I would be thankful for any and all advice,
NMOY :u:

P.S. if you think I need 2- 4 more land, what would you swap out?

styx^ · Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 66

Mana Burn doesn't exist anymore. Just for your information... as sad as that maybe but it's true...

Akeldyma · Joined: 05 Jul 2009 Posts: 108

He is counting on Venom to do the damage, NOT Mana Burn.