Which Deck Should I Choose??

It has been a while hasn't it...

Life, it seems, has a nasty habit of getting in the way of the best layed plans.
I will keep trudging on through the mire in a very british fashion, head held high
and moaning until the cows are walking around in my kitchen re: come home

Today's topic for discussion is quite large, cue "thats what she said jokes", so
I have chopped it into three manageable segments (That's what she said). Today we are discussing deck types.

Players, both old and new realise that there are a plethora of decks to choose from
, and play. Dispite the variety of decks available they can be broken down into 3
catergories.

1. Aggro
2. Control
3. Combo

This is not to say that every deck has to fit into one of these catergories, because
stratergies such as Merfolk are aggro/control combining the aggro-esque nature of
a beatdown deck with powerful counterspells, indicative of controlling decks and a
great many number of control deck have within in them a combo such as RUG control lists
currently being piloted, which has Deceiver Exarch/Splinter Twin combo slotted nicely
in the shell. As you can see from above the overlap is incredible and in real terms
we cannot classify a deck in the one of the 3 "super" catergories, but I am going to go
over the basics of the each type and have some decklists which personify the deck type

1. AGGRO

Otherwise known as Sligh, this archetype is balls to the wall aggression. Play guys.
Attack with guys. If opponent is not dead, kill with burn!!. This type of deck
requires a great deal of synrergy within the cards of the deck, so tribal deck generally
come into this catergory. The best example I can give is Goblins.

Creature                       Artifact                 Land
3 Gempalm Incinerator  4 Aether Vial       4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Goblin Chieftain                                   7 Mountain
4 Goblin Lackey                                    3 Rishadan Port
4 Goblin Matron                                     4 Wasteland
4 Goblin Piledriver                                 4 Wooded Foothills
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
2 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Warren Instigator

Spells
3 Warren Weirding

As you can see, the deck is packed to the rafters will all the best creatures red can buy and all of them
are goblins which means you can play specific spells to power up goblins and do more damage. Overall
this specific stratergy is very powerful but can be easily disrupted with a well timed spells on the fulcrums of the deck.

Another example of this type is the Zoo deck.

Creature                          Other Spells             Land
4 Steppe Lynx                   4 Lightning Bolt          4 Arid Mesa
3 Grim Lavamancer            4 Path to Exile           3 Windswept Heath
4 Qasali Pridemage            2 Umezawa's Jitte      3 Wooded Foothills
4 Wild Nacatl                   2 Sylvan Library         1 Horizon Canopy
4 Tarmogoyf                     4 Chain Lightning        2 Plateau
4 Knight of the Reliquary    1 Fireblast                 2 Savannah
                                                                     2 Taiga
                                                                     1 Treetop Village
                                                                     1 Forest

This is another powerful aggro stratergy. You play all the best and low costed creatures you can with
the best burn spells available, to power yourself to victory. The difference between goblins and zoo
is that in goblins, all the creatures are, well, goblins. This means you can play slightly mediocre cards
that become very powerful in this deck. An example of this would be Goblin Ringleader. Whereas
 in the zoo deck, each one the creatures and spells are powerful on their own, each warrenting
attention in their own right. All you need to power the zoo deck is to play some dual lands and how hard
is it to do that in legacy...

Another powerful and viable archetype, and commonly associated with Aggro deck is the infamous White weenie deck. This basically is a collection of all the small white creatures in the format and slamming them all in the same deck and beating face. Generally in any given format, you will have a global pump effect for white a la Honor of the Pure, so you "weenie" creatures get less weenie, and beat face harder. An example of a good white weenie deck from the past couple of years is the one piloted by Paul Reitzl to victory in PT Amsterdam.

Main Deck 60 cards
4  Arid Mesa 4  Flagstones of Trokair 1  Horizon Canopy 4  Marsh Flats 10  Plains 23 lands 4  Ethersworn Canonist 4  Figure of Destiny 4  Knight of the White Orchid 2  Ranger of Eos 4  Steppe Lynx 4  Student of Warfare 22 creatures	4  Brave the Elements 4  Honor of the Pure 2  Mana Tithe 1  Path to Exile 4  Spectral Procession 15 other spells Sideboard 1  Angel's Grace 3  Burrenton Forge-Tender 1  Celestial Purge 1  Lapse of Certainty 3  Path to Exile 4  Relic of Progenitus 2  Rule of Law

This is a perfect combination of little creatures with powerful abilites, above average attacking power, and although a lot of player spurn this deck archetype, it is a very powerful archetype.

Whilst this is a powerful supertype, because of it's reliance on creatures, it is easily disrupted in
several ways. The first way is mass creature removal. A well timed Wrath/Damnation/DoJ is the end generally
killing many creatures and preventing the deck from working as advertised. Playing creatures with high
toughness is also good plan although if the deck is play searing blaze then this is not such a good idea, but at end of the day, you are playing the most powerful creatures available to you in any given format, and if you opponent falters for a turn, it could very well mean you will be victorious

That is all for today, and I will leave you with what I think will be the best aggro deck of next year, Innistrad
not withstanding.

Creatures                        Spells                   Lands
4 Signal Pest                  4 Dispatch              18 Plains
4 Memnite                     4 Tempered Steel     4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Leonin Relic-Warder   4 Origin Spellbomb
4 Hero of Bladehold       4 Glint Hawk Idol
2 Vault Skirge               2 Mox Opal
2 Blade Splicer

Till next time when we go over control decks....