The aged planeswalker stepped to his shelf full of dusty tomes. It had been decades since he had given thought to casting spells. After all the destruction he had seen at the hands of rival planeswalkers, he had taken a step back and found a realm far from the turmoil of these desperate spellcasters.
Until today.
A young upstart had found this distant plane and shook up the balance he had enjoyed for so long. It was a bit of a shock for him to see someone as powerful as he again after two decades of peace. The younger planeswalker summoned powerful creatures, faceless abominations that fed off the mana from the land itself, completely foreign and alien to this humble medieval world.
It was evident from the moment his aged eyes saw him, force would be the only thing the younger would understand. The tomes he had written in the past held everything he knew of the magic. Written long ago and now filled with dust, these books were the only arsenal he had to face the creatures he saw rain havoc upon his serene lands.
Boy is this old planeswalker in for a heap of trouble. In today's article we'll be taking a look at my newest challenge, a Three Pack Ante list from one of my favorite sets, Fallen Empires.
Challenge being the key word here.
Many of you have heard of Fallen Empires but most of you have never played with cards from this set. The set is known to be one of the weakest ever printed but it's filled with flavor. Let's take a look at some of the challenges this deck will be facing in it's uphill battle against newer cards. The starting deck list can be found here.
Considering that Fallen Empires packs contain only eight cards in them, I'll be forced to open more packs to fill the starting amount. Because of this I'll be starting with a less than optimal mana base where I have 26 lands for a 73 card deck. This alone could potentially be disasterous but in retrospect, the odds are that I'll more likely to be losing spells as opposed to lands during my early matches which will even my mana base out eventually.
Fallen Empires was notorious for having spells that required double mana of the same color in the casting cost. In a one or two color deck that's something easily overcome, but in this five color version, could be the biggest weakness of all. I can see myself ending up with a hand full of spells that don't share the doubled lands I need in order to cast them.
This deck also has little to no removal. This will be a big problem since my only removal will come in the form of creative attacking or blocking and unblocked Necrite attacks.
As you can see from the cards I opened in my packs, there are several other glaring weaknesses the contents themselves. One of those is Dwarven Lieutenant. It' gives +1/+o to a target dwarf and it's the only one in the deck. Other sets have a lack of dwarf creatures in them so the chances of me winning more of the creature type is nearly impossible. Another is that I have two copies of Goblin Grenade and just one goblin in the deck. I also have two Fungal Blooms and just one fungus creature to use it on and my chances of gaining a fungus in a win is next to nothing.
dwarven
Enough complaining, the deck does contain two strengths. The first is that it has many copies of very low casting cost creatures, in both green and white. If I get a decent starting hand with Forests or Plains I may be able to get the jump on a deck with a poor opening hand.
icatian infantrySecondly, believe it or not, the banding ability may be quite a boon. The ability has fallen by the wayside due to it's complexity and confusing interactions but since I know how it works and and able to use it as an activate ability, I can keep my less experienced opponents off guard.
Realistically, I'll be losing many matches with this deck. Eventually with some losses that will trim my deck from the more useless cards, the deck will get slightly better. It will require a boatload worth of luck.
In the coming weeks, I'll be continuing story of the old planewsalker as he battles against the younger challengers.
Swing Last.
Aiokii
