The "Exception" deck in MTG

After one of the recent major pro tournaments that Wizards / DCI ran for Magic: The Gathering (MTG), they deemed that two cards were too powerful for the tournament style game, and were subsequently banned. Those cards were "Jace, the Mind Sculptor", and "Stoneforge Mystic". The first card was very powerful, and banning it seemed to put some equality back into the game. Banning the second card caused a dilemma for Wizards, as around the same time, they were releasing a ready-to-play Event Deck that contained that card - the War of Attrition deck.

An Event Deck is a preconstructed deck that is geared towards winning games. It contains 60 cards, with an additional 15 cards as a sideboard. By banning the Stoneforge Mystic card, they effectively banned the War of Attrition deck. Since they were all ready to by shipped or already in the stores, Wizards deemed that those decks were tournament legal - as long as you played the deck as it was. If you want to modify the deck, then Wizards have deemed that you need to remove the 2 Stoneforge Mystics in the deck.

This leads to an interesting position for me. I am not the greatest deck builder. That has been shown to me by my lack of being able to win matches in all the MTG events I have been involved with - although I am starting to win games. Getting this deck meant that I would loose out in doing something MTG - customizing decks.

From the majority of initial reports, the War of Attrition deck is still quite useful at dispatching the majority of other decks. In the next few weeks, when I get to play it as is (ie. "out of the box"), I will make mention of its performance in the comments section below.

I purchased this from the Dungeon of Magic (located in the Royal Arcade, Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne City).