Magic the Gathering always pulled me in most because of the ability to express your creativity with a deck. And one of the things I always wanted to express was an appreciation for a book series that took a considerable portion of my life to finish reading: The Wheel of Time. (Spoilers for the series, probably, so you should leave. I’ll still try to be obtuse, though.)
For the longest time, I couldn’t make the deck come together. I thought about a “wheeling” deck or “only cards with Time on them,” or “Dragons!” but they never felt like they captured what was enticing about the series. But then I saw Farideh…
For this deck, I use “Farideh, Devil’s Chosen.” Or rather, I use a proxied version called, “Mat Cauthon, Lord of Luck,” which is a 4-mana 3/3 legendary creature in blue and red that reads:
“Dark One's Own Luck — Whenever you roll one or more dice, Farideh, Devil's Chosen gains flying and menace until end of turn. If any of those results was 10 or higher, draw a card.”
For reference:
https://www.tumblr.com/sunscheinmedia/724178338936176640/finally-finished-my-mat-proxy-of-farideh-devils?source=share
That’s Mat, right? Let’s put it together, and don’t forget to buy proxies, Hasbro has enough money.
I tried to make as many cards allude to Mat or the Wheel of Time as I could, but most of them are reaching if I’m being totally honest.
But who cares?! Farideh’s ability is called “Dark One’s Own Luck,” and rolls dice. That’s some TASTY flavor for a Mat deck! Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
While the mechanic is a win, the dice-rolling cards themselves don’t provide all that much flavor. But this is a fine trade-off for me; the deck plays like Mat, and it feels good to play. It is a casual EDH deck and in a state of constant flux, this is just a turning of the wheel. Also, I can’t exactly cut the core mechanic if I want the deck to function. Anyway, here’s the pile of dice-rolling cards:
• Chaos Dragon, (another name for Mat’s childhood friend)
• Barbarian Class (for his other childhood friend. I forget which one was better with women.)
• Krark’s Other Thumb. (This is only flavorful because it’s the single silver bordered card in the deck, and you can only win the game of Snakes and Foxes by cheating.)
• Wyll, Blade of Frontiers (could feasibly be bopping around Mat’s head.)
• Treasure Chest(… cuz Mat’s rich, I guess?)
• Wyll, Blade of Frontiers
• Sword of Hours
• Wand of Wonder
• Component Pouch
• Wizard’s Spellbook
• Wyll’s Reversal
• Berserker’s Frenzy
• Gale’s Redirection
• Boing!
• Cone of Cold
• Arcane Endeavor
• Power of Persuasion
• Thunderwave
• Iron Mastiff
• Delina, Wild Mage
• Djinni Windseer
• Chaos Channeler
• Hoarding Ogre
• Brazen Dwarf
• Feywild Trickster
• Pixie Guide
• Netherese Puzzle-Ward
The next batch focuses on card draw, starting with “flavorful/ish” to “hey friend, I’m just trying to play cards”:
• Explosion of Riches (fresh outta Tar Valon, amirite?!)
• Niv-Mizzet, Parun (the draaaagon)
• Crash Through (tear that shit down)
• Champion of Wits (snakes)
• Military Intelligence
• Improbable Alliance
• Brainstorm
• Preordain
• Psychosis Crawler
Next we have to protect our sweet sweet boi. These are the bones of a deck, not always what you think of when you need flavor, but they make for a good stock. Here are the cards to protect my commander:
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Lightning Greaves (my third best pair of boots must have fallen apart)
• Veilstone amulet (foxes)
• Combat Research
• Shore Up
And next is mana ramping. Besides the first two, idk what else to say. Every soup needs a few rocks, I guess. Mana rocks, amirite (winks at camera, oh god what am I doing with my life?)
• Noble’s Purse
• Bucknard’s Everfull Purse
• Izzet Locket
• Mind Stone
• Sol Ring
• Decanter of Endless Water (for the desert, maybe. Also we’re drawing cards, folks.)
Elimination, targeted or otherwise:
• Ravenform
• Clay Gholam Golem
• Avarice Totem (ruby hilted dagger)
• Shenanigans
• You Find the Villains’ Lair
• Confound
• Reality Shift
• Redirect
• Neutralize
• Counterspell
• Swan Song
• Disperse
Ok, so we ate our vegetables for most of that list, but what’s left are the miscellaneous cards, and some of these are quite spicy indeed:
• Dance with Calamity (that’s a funny nickname for Jack)
• Clockwork Fox
• Silver Raven
• Hakka, Whispering Raven
• Balefire Dragon (um, yeah)
And that’s all I got, really. Lands are there too, but nothing too special.
Now get to playing, it’s time to toss the dice.
