Illusions-Donate in Extended

Mike Krzywicki

Ever since NecroDonate popped onto the scene last year, the DCI has been taking drastic steps to handicap the explosive combo deck by banning some of the most abusive cards in the deck. First, Dark Ritual and Mana Vault got the axe, and that was supposed to tame the deck that had dominated the previous Qualifier season. However, in the next Extended Qualifier season, NecroDonate proved it wasn't down for the count as a new version appeared sporting Mox Diamonds and a higher land count, and, despite the loss of the explosive mana the deck had the first time around, it still dominated the Qualifier and Grand Prix circuit in the same fashion as before. This time, the DCI had finally had enough, and gave Necropotence and Demonic Consultation the boot, eliminating the deck's ability to exploit the massive amount of life that Illusions provides, as well as taking away the most efficient search spell in the format. Now that there is no longer a Necro in NecroDonate, what is everybody going to do with all those Illusions of Grandeurs and Donates lying around? Here's an idea for a new, different style of Donate deck:

4 Illusions of Grandeur
4 Donate
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Sapphire Medallion
4 Intuition
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Frantic Search
2 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Capsize
21 Island

4 Illusions of Grandeur, 4 Donate - This is, without a doubt, the best way to win in Extended right now. Not because it's flashy, or because it's funny to kill someone with cards that came out of the dollar box, but because it is devastatingly efficient. Mimicking Mirror Universe's effect under pre-Sixth Edition rules, this two-card combo first boosts your life to a ridiculous level to buy time against aggressive decks, then deals your opponent a two-turn, twenty damage clock shortly thereafter. Also, unlike some combo decks of the past, such as Cadaverous Bloom decks and Bargain decks, Illusions decks tend to not have issues with producing the combo more than one time in a game against a life-gaining opponent, and this deck is no exception. The Ice Age enchantment has its risks attached to it, though, offering the aware opponent a small timing window in which an enchantment removal spell ends the game for the Donate player; cards like Seal of Cleansing and Aura of Silence are especially problematic, forcing the deck to sport a Capsize in a slot that would be better occupied by some form of card drawing or mana acceleration.

4 Helm of Awakening, 4 Sapphire Medallion - There is quite a bit of quality mana acceleration available in Extended, such as Ancient Tomb, Mox Diamond, and Grim Monolith, to name a few, but Sapphire Medallion and its Visions partner provide the greatest benefit considering the build of the deck. The only cards in the deck that don't have some form of colorless requirement in the casting cost are the two Brainstorms, and the only non-blue cards in the deck are the Medallion and the Helm, meaning you eventually generate more mana than would be gained from a Grim Monolith by the mana saved under the Medallion and Helm. Though the Helm is more of a chancy card because it also benefits your opponent, it gives a greater opportunity to get a third turn Illusions/Donate by also allowing for your other Medallions/Helms of Awaking to cost one generic mana, meaning, assuming you dropped a Helm on the second turn, you can drop a third land, a Medallion/Helm for one, cast an Intuition for a combo piece or Frantic Search for one blue, Frantic Search, then play Illusions and Donate both at their reduced cost, 1 ManaBlue Mana and Blue Mana, respectively.

4 Intuition, 4 Merchant Scroll, 4 Accumulated Knowledge - It's no Necro, but Intuition/Accumulated Knowledge is about the best thing blue has going in the way of drawing cards in Extended. The goal of the deck, and this might not be apparent by just glancing at the deck list, is to cast Accumulated Knowledge for three and four as early in the game as possible via Merchant Scroll and Intuition, then use the abundance of cards in your hand (usually anywhere from ten to twelve cards if both Accumulates resolve) to drop Medallions and Frantic Search and drop the combo, usually with Force of Will backup. A careful observer will also notice that there are no means of recurring the Accumulates once they hit the graveyard... tempting as it may be to include Recall, Relearn, or Gaea's Blessing for this purpose, I found out very quickly that the deck simply doesn't need more than the five extra cards that the two successful Accumulates generate to win on the next turn. But, since they can't be recurred, a lot of judgment needs to be used on hands that have an Accumulate in them, and whether or not it should be cast on the second turn, or saved to be more powerful after an Intuition. Merchant Scroll, a card that has essentially been shoved aside since its integral role in the High Tide decks a few years back, truly shines in this deck, providing a cheap Demonic Tutor effect for the many important blue instants in the deck, always making sure you have a Force of Will, Frantic Search, Capsize, that last Accumulated Knowledge, or an Intuition to get things kicked off.

4 Frantic Search - This is one of the most deceptively broken cards in the deck. It does what you'd think it'd do by the looks of the deck, letting you dig two cards further and maybe make a mana via its reduced cost if a Medallion or Helm is in play, but what this deck does is turn lands into turns with the help of the cost-reducing artifacts and their "reverse mana acceleration," meaning that the three lands that are untapped through Frantic Search will be used to cast up to three spells, including potentially another Frantic Search to keep the ball rolling. What looks like one or two mana netted off of the Search, depending on the number of Medallions in play, is actually a significant amount more when you consider the original mana cost of the spells you are casting; if you have two Medallions in play, and cast a Frantic Search, making two blue mana, then cast an Intuition and a Frantic Search with that mana, it's like that two mana is actually six mana. It is amusing that the search effect, presumably the card's main intended function, is really just icing on the cake when compared to the crucial untapping effect, at least in the context of this particular deck. Note how the deck's draw engine provides the excess cards to fuel the mana generation and to fully realize the search capacity of the card... in order to have a card like Frantic Search in a deck, it is very important to have something to offset the card loss involved in casting it, otherwise its player will get to untap a lot of lands and draw and discard a lot of cards, but then end up with nothing.
While most search spells, such as Impulse, Opt, and Sleight of Hand, are advertising the ability to trade themselves for a better card, Brainstorm lets you fix your hand substantially with the three additional cards..

2 Brainstorm - These are definitely up for debate, but probably not to be replaced by other search cards. Of the remaining cheap search cards in Extended, Brainstorm is unique in that it allows its player to adjust the quality of his or her hand by one or two cards when used in combination with a shuffle effect, such as Merchant Scroll or Intuition. While most search spells, such as Impulse, Opt, and Sleight of Hand, are advertising the ability to trade themselves for a better card, Brainstorm lets you fix your hand substantially with the three additional cards and offers the possibility that they get shuffled away by some other means, leaving you to draw a better card on your draw step, which can be a huge swing in a game, especially when you can capitalize on that swing as soon as this deck can. What they might be better off as, though, is Mana Leaks or Arcane Denials (I would recommend the former). This deck might have some degree of weakness versus a deck with a decent-sized permission base, like Counter-Oath or the many Monoblue designs available in the format, and additional countermagic on top of the Force of Wills could really help push the Accumulated Knowledges through, and drawing lots of extra cards is how control decks are beaten. These could also serve as experimental slots for cards like Relearn or Recall, which definitely have potentially explosive synergy with the Knowledges.

1 Capsize - Unfortunately, in almost every combo deck, there lies the necessary evil of permanent removal. With the exception of High Tide, which was itself an exception to every established rule of Magic which came before it, every combo deck needs to pack some form of answer to that nasty Seal of Cleansing, Arcane Laboratory, Planar Void, or other random hoser card that wrecks that individual deck. Capsize got the nod in favor of Rescind (a close second place), although, for a while, both where absent, and Hoodwink was the method of choice. However, with the recent bannings in Extended, Green, and more specifically, Elvish Lyrist, is likely to be a lot more popular than it was a short while ago, and it was fairly popular then. Hoodwink, while the cheapest bounce spell under a Medallion or Helm, cannot return an Elvish Lyrist to its owner's hand to clear the way for the Illusions to come down. The most you can hope for is that they tap down to one mana by their end step and then you can Hoodwink their land, but even then an Elvish Spirit Guide out of the hand can make you look foolish. Rescind cycles, which is very important, since it means you don't ever really have a dead draw other than land, but what put Capsize over the top is its ability to become another win condition. Remember, this deck has eight "medallions," and, with three of them out, Capsize comes with free Buyback, which will lead to a permanentless, and likely frustrated opponent in a matter of a few turns.

21 Islands - Actually, this deck didn't even start out as a Donate deck. It started out as a Mana Flare/Palinchron deck, and it actually killed on the fourth or fifth turn pretty consistently, providing it didn't get Wastelanded. Then, it changed into close to the deck listed above, but with four Ancient Tombs. It, unlike the Mana Flare deck, didn't always lose when it got Wastelanded, but it when it hit, it hit hard, and it almost always changed the outcome of the game. Wasteland is one of the most defining cards in the Extended format, and, every time I build an Extended deck, I have to wonder about whether or not it is worthwhile to include nonbasic lands with Wasteland lurking on the horizon. Wasteland is like a zero-mana Time Walk for aggressive decks against a deck that presents no early defense, and, unlike the legendary out-of-print sorcery, it is not restricted, so you can be hit with three free Time Walks in a row in Extended, getting whittled away by Jackal Pups and Mogg Fanatics in the meantime. Conversely, with no nonbasics in the deck, you can sleep safely knowing that your mana base is virtually undisruptable, leaving the other player with something which is functionally inferior to Urza's Power Plant.

This deck should be competitive in Extended, and, if it ever becomes popular enough, provide for some absolutely outrageous mirror matches. With eight Accumulated Knowledges and eight Helms of Awakening to go around, there are a number of outrageous possibilities that could occur, including the possibility of a second turn Donate kill! So don't dump those Donates and Illusions just yet...