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Main » Articles » Alpha, Beta, Unlimited Decks

Alpha, Beta, Unlimited Decks

Abe Sargent
Posted on May 25, 2015
 Reddit

Counterspell
The very first set of Magic was awesome! It set the stage for a game that we still love and play today, years and years later. Magic has evolved into a huge dynamic in gaming today. Would anyone have thought back in 1993 that Magic would have professional players? People who made a large share of their money in card speculation? That the game would be churning out four or more sets a year with no end in sight?

I don’t think so!

It’s an incredible journey. As someone who played in the halcyon days of Magic, I still have a fondness for some cards and concepts. The cards in the first set continue to influence us today. I thought it would be fun to build some decks just from cards from this era.

Now, I’m going to use modern deck-building technology, such as running four of a card and enough lands. The old forty-twenty rule for spells and land was held to very religiously back then. We’ll have more lands. I’m also going to steer clear (mostly) of cards that are obviously broken, such as Mox Ruby, Time Walk, and Black Lotus.

The card pool is pretty good, and you can build some fun decks from the first cards. Are you ready for a trip in the time machine?

Deck #1 — ABU Counter-Burn

ABU Counter-Burn ? Casual | Abe Sargent

This is a solid deck with many of the classics and standards from the era in these colors. You have twelve burn spells and ten counters in the deck—and then some creatures and Control Magics to finish things off. It’s a very simple deck. It was played pretty commonly.

I had a friend, Jason, who ran a version of this deck that he upgraded with a handful of cards released in the first expansions sets. I remember running into one of these, and the only difference was that the guy would run High Tide and Volcanic Islands and fewer Mountains, and he had a Time Elemental he traded with a person online. And those were the only major changes he made to this shell from the first expansion sets.

Here’s his actual deck, as best as I can recall, from this era:

Counter-Burn ? Casual | Jason, circa 1994

I remember he had two Sol Rings, which annoyed some people when he had two early. He would use High Tide for dropping a few creatures, Braingeyser, or an X burn spell.

Deck #2 — ABU Mono-White Aggro

ABU Mono-White Aggro ? Casual | Abe Sargent

This is another deck you ran into quite a bit in the early days. You sometimes saw a Mono-Black Aggro deck behind Bad Moon and Black Knight and friends, but the quality, cheap creatures in black often didn’t see print until later (such as Erg Raiders). It was pretty weak as an aggro deck. Red was played more as a control color during this era, with great finishers and removal options.

This deck features a lot of early drops, fed by Crusade. It was pretty common to back your early beats with some bigger stuff in this era, so a creature like Serra Angel was not out of place during these days. Today, you wouldn’t expect to see a lot of that. In the first few expansions, you have some better early drops (Tundra Wolves, Thunder Spirit) and Crusade effects (Jihad, Angelic Voices). You would often find aggro decks running some form of tempo-suppression, such as Armageddon or Winter Orb to slow people down as well. This is a prototypical decklist from the era.

Deck #3 — ABU R/G Ramp

ABU R/G Ramp ? FORMAT | AUTHOR

Green did not begin the game of Magic with the ability to fetch lands and deposit them into play. That didn’t arise until Legends (Untamed Wilds). Early ramp was about three crucial 1-drops: Birds of Paradise, Wild Growth, and Llanowar Elves. This deck uses the mana creatures to accelerate into bigger stuff quickly, and you can drop Shivan Dragon or the Two-Headed Giant of Foriys a little earlier. I gave this deck some early game with Elvish Archers and a few tricks with the Giant Growth/Berserk madness. Now add in ten burn spells for removal or harnessing your mana making, and you have a solid deck.

Back then, you probably would have seen stuff like Fastbond, Rock Hydra, and Mana Flare as well. Perhaps you can find space for them!

Deck #4 — ABU W/B Soul Control

ABU W/B Soul Control ? Casual | Abe Sargent

The best creatures during this era were, in order:

Shivan Dragon

  1. Shivan Dragon

  2. Serra Angel

  3. Sengir Vampire

  4. Hypnotic Specter

  5. Mahamoti Djinn

  6. Royal Assassin

Then add in Vesuvan Doppelganger, Clone, Birds of Paradise, and Clockwork Beast to the mix. All were strong cards that saw a lot of play.

One color combination combined the best creatures of the era, and that was W/B. A control deck that runs Terror, Swords to Plowshares, and Wrath of God is just tough to touch in the red zone. Now add in the best creatures of the era, and it’s hard to not be excited. There are a lot of fun restricted cards, such as Balance, Mind Twist, and Demonic Tutor that push the power level up a few notches. You don’t need later sets to give you more powerful tools; you already have it!

Deck #5 — ABU W/U Sleight Knight

ABU W/U Sleight Knight ? Casual | Abe Sargent

I thought it would be fun to finish out my decks of the past with a triad of combos that were commonly played in the era. Sleight Knight basically was used to turn White Knight or Northern Paladin into the right colors for breaking things. It was a simple concept.

Sometimes, these decks would run Blue Elemental Blast to give you additional removal. (I don’t think that works today—you can’t target something that’s the wrong color.) You would also see Magical Hack on stuff like Karma. Meanwhile, the Sleight Knight deck would gain other creatures, such as Order of Leitbur, later on.

Deck #6 — ABU TurboStasis

ABU TurboStasis ? Casual | Abe Sargent

Along with Winter Orb decks, Stasis decks were among the most annoying of these lockdown concepts. The goal here is twofold. First, you can drop Stasis and then swing with your vigilance Serra Angel and win the game from above. The next way is to deck your opponent with cards via Howling Mine and Braingeyser. Remember that an artifact tapped is turned off, and you can turn on or off the Howling Mine with the Icy Manipulator in case you were in danger of being decked. The extra cards from the Mine ensured that you would draw enough cards to drop an Island every turn to pay the Stasis’s upkeep.

The most common tempo decks of the era were land-destruction decks. They would run Ice Storm, Sinkhole, Stone Rain, the various artifact mana sources, Dingus Egg, Ankh of Mishra, a few smaller creatures, and accelerants like Birds of Paradise, and they gained Strip Mine as additional sets were released. They were so pervasive in tournaments that Dingus Egg used to be restricted.

How about one more deck?

Deck #7 — ABU Enchantress Combo

ABU Enchantress Combo ? Casual | Abe Sargent

Thicket Basilisk
Ah yes, the Enchantress deck! The goal was to grab a Verduran Enchantress and then play enchantments to draw a passel of cards. I added in the trick of Lure with Thicket Basilisk (or Cockatrice) to swing at and key the opponent’s untapped team. This combo was always telegraphed since there was no haste, so a player had to drop the Basilisk a turn early. You could play around it, but it was good fun.

I gave this deck a few tricks, such as Elvish Archers as a nice target for an Aspect of Wolf. You can also drop the combo of Lure and Regeneration on something to both force blocks and keep your dork alive.



The first set was so jam-packed of fun that you had a ton of decks. We had combos around Earthquake with Circle of Protection: Red (or Hurricane and Circle of Protection: Green), Armageddon with mana creatures and big beaters, or Lord of the Pit fed by The Hive, or even Prodigal Sorcerer and Pirate Ships with green for Instill Energy and Fungusaur. You would find Juggernaut enchanted by Invisibility and a R/W deck running Conversion and Sunglasses of Urza so players could use all of their lands for both colors.

It was an awesome time in the game!

I hope you enjoyed this tour through all things Alpha-Beta-Unlimited. What would you add to these decks? How would you flesh them out? Were there cards from here you wish I would have mentioned?

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

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TAGS articles, deck tech, casual, analysis, abe sargent, decklist, alpha, limited edition alpha, limited edition beta, beta

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