{"ops":[{"insert":"July Deckbuilding Contest Entry - Requirement: Weird Mana Curve which is relevant to game plan\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Magar of the Magic Strings"}},{"insert":"+ "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Obosh, the Preypiercer"}},{"insert":"(companion)\n\nI decided that Obosh, by itself, wasn't an interesting enough deckbuilding restriction, so I also decided that every nonland card in the deck would include the number 3. Thus, every card is either mana value 3, has power and/or toughness 3, or the word or number 3 appears in its rules text somewhere. Then I also made it under $50 (including basic land) just because.\n\nSo, to the deck itself: The basic plan is to burn out opposing creatures with instants and sorceries and then animate those spells as creatures using Magar to continue controlling the board and finish our opponents off, with help from Obosh in the late game.\n\nThe deck is light on creatures because of the commander ability to make instants and sorceries into creatures. We have a fair bit of ramp, though unfortunately almost all of it is 3 cost as a consequence of Obosh. This is still important because we really want to be hitting 6 mana to be able to play and activate Magar on the same turn.\n\nWe have a sprinkling of mill and discard (and surveil, and rummaging...) to help with getting cards into your graveyard, and a bit of draw as well to avoid running out of gas late game (particularly potent if you can animate it with Magar). \n\nWe're running A LOT of removal, mostly in the form of a frankly irresponsible amount of burn. With three opponents, you can send your animated burn spells at whoever is most open (or whoever you can MAKE the most open) and then use the triggered spells to crack the defenses of opponents whose board is too intimidating to attack into, or just remove the player to remove their board.\n\nThe deck is relatively light on lands, because our \"curve\" is more like a pillar at mana value 3 - we have only 8 cards that are higher.\n\nGame plan:\n\nWith the deckbuilding restrictions that I chose, the options for the first couple of turns were pretty limited. There are a few one drops which mostly aim to buy time and we also run quite a few tap lands because we're almost always going to have a dead turn on either 1 or 2 anyway.\n\nTurn 3-5 is where the game starts for this deck, most likely with removal for whatever is looking most threatening after the first few turns, and a creature or mana rock or two to set up for later. The commander should generally be held back at least until you have something in the graveyard to animate with him, and preferably until you can put him down and activate him on the same turn .\n\nTurn 6-8 is when you are thinking about getting your commander out, animating a couple of spells with him and finally getting out Obosh to double the damage of every card in your deck, which should give you the mileage to finish out the game. This is where the mana curve as game plan comes in, if you can untap after putting down Obosh you can probably cast 3-4 burn spells at double damage including copies off spells animated with Magar, which should finish off most players who are still alive this late in the game.\n\nObvious weaknesses are removal on your commander and limited options for dealing with multiple large creatures, or enchantments. A well timed board wipe could be catastrophic. \n\nYou could certainly turn this into a much more competitive deck if you removed my '$50 maximum' or 'every card has a 3 on it' restrictions, it's probably around a bracket 1 or 2 as is, fun and silly but not a powerhouse by any means. Hope you like it!\n"}]}