In case you missed it, here is Part 1 of Abe's series, 'Will You Be My Archenemy?' - Trick

Hello nation! I hope your past week has been pleasant and your Magic-ing fruitful. Whether you played at States or your local card store's FNM or just slung some cardboard at the table with a few friends, Magic is always something new, exciting, and fresh. Magic is both a constant in our lives, and yet always changing. It's odd just how well the game pulls off the double.

One of the ways the game has been changing recently is with the introduction of side products in addition to sets. With fewer cards being made each year after the changes a few years ago, it seems that Wizards has been trying to sell us more products. You used to see one annual product around the holidays for Magic. It might be Deckmasters, Anthologies, Battle Royale or Beatdown.

And then, in the past few years, we've seen a massive increase in the sets. You have the Duel Deck series that began with Elves vs Goblins, had entries like Divine vs Demonic and Jace vs Chandra and looks to continue in Knights vs Dragons. Overall, this series has had six entries so far, and Knights vs. Dragons will be number seven.

Then you have the three reprint sets entitled From the Vault. They have a pretty high price tag attached to them in the secondary market. It's another great way to get some old cards, and often some new art and foils.

You also have a few solo acts. There have been three products released as one ofs, and we've yet to see any follow up to two of them. One was the all foil deck, The Slivers. Soon we will see another entry in the Fire and Lightning all foil deck. Another product is the recently released Deck Builder's Toolkit. I gave away a couple as gifts to friends starting out in Magic, and they both were very happy with the product, and used it a lot. I opened up one myself to play with, and it seemed like a solid idea. Finally, you had the all-foil Alara Block foil booster packs, which was an interesting way of selling cards. I personally liked it, and bought a few packs, but some retailers have told me they didn't exactly fly off the shelf (and why would they, since it was recently released product that had already run its course. Now, if they had released foils from, say, Ravnica Block or something, that'd be different).

Finally, there have been a couple of booster shots to the arm of multiplayer Magic. Last year and this year saw the release of two new additions to Magic against more than one foe – last summer's Planechase, and this summer's Archenemy. They both resemble the old Vanguard sets, and both add a lot of fun to multiplayer.

Last week, I wrote at length about the Archenemy format, and gave you some strategies for winning as the evil mastermind. Being the villain is fun!

However, villains need heroes to bring them back down. How do you defeat the archenemy? They start with 40 life, they go first, and they even draw on their first turn. They have a large scheme deck that can really push their power over the edge. Being heroes is about overcoming the odds against you, and still prevailing for justice, order, nature, right, to protect yourself (or your loved ones), or just because you feel like it.

The rules for playing as the opponents of the archenemy are a little different. Much like Two-Headed Giant, the players share a turn. They untap their permanents at the same time, draw a card at the same time, each can play a land during the main phase, and so on.

During combat, each opponent chooses which creatures will attack, and they all attack in one horde. This gives the opponents a chance to overcome the archenemy's defenses. Otherwise, one wall could block three or four attackers over the course of a full turn (such as in a normal multiplayer game). It also means that a simple Fog will stop everyone.

Remember that you can share information, but you can't share anything else. You can't use each other's permanents. For example, I can't tap my opponent's Prodigal Pyromancer in order to deal one damage. I can't have my land tapped for mana by a teammate. I can't play my teammates' cards.

Otherwise, basic multiplayer rules are in place. You have multiplayer mulligans, people who die take all of their permanents with them, and so forth.

You may not have schemes and a high life total, but you do have one thing going for you – numbers. That's what we will talk about today. Additionally, I will build a few decks for you to see ways of taking down the big evil.

Heroes Plan #1: Aggro Does Matter

Last week, I said that basically there were just two routes of victory open to an archenemy. One of those was winning by combo, and the other was winning by control. Other strategies – tempo, aggro, mid-range, aggro-control – they just don't seem to work. It's difficult to take down a bunch of enemies with a Sligh deck.

Since numbers are on the heroes side, it seems like aggro is a great tool to use to fight the archenemy. Aggro decks generally aren't good ideas in multiplayer. They get overpowered easily and it's hard to take out more than one enemy – and rarely do you see more than two go down to an aggro deck. That's not to say creature decks can't win – they do. It's just those that do either rely on scalability of their creatures to mammoth proportions, or bigger creatures. (Examples of scalability include weenie decks with Coat of Arms or your prototypical elf deck with tons of lords).

We don't need to depend on those tricks here. All we need is some ammunition in the gun. Note that many archenemies will be packing serious creature removal. We need a quick aggressive creature attack deck that puts the screws on our opponent, but doesn't roll over to Wrath of God. Your deck has to be more than just Savannah Lions and Elite Vanguards.

"A Knight Among Us"

• Creatures (32)
• 4 Knight Exemplar
• 4 Student of Warfare
• 4 Soltari Crusader
• 4 Celestial Crusader
• 4 Kor Sanctifiers
• 2 Kinsbaile Cavalier
• 2 Defender of Law
• 2 Crusading Knight
• 2 Knight of Dawn
• 2 Zhalfirin Commander
• 2 Soltari Lancer

• Spells (4)
• 4 Swords to Plowshares

• Lands (24)
• 2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 22 Plains

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This deck uses Knight Exemplar to make all of your other knights indestructible. Most of the other creatures in the deck are knights. This will help them survive mass removal, combat, and targeted removal.

Two creatures are not knights, so let's discuss them and their roles now. One is Celestial Crusader. This creature is your only flyer, and it can flash into play to change combat math. It is a permanent Glorious Anthem effect attached to a creature, and fits into this deck more as that than as a creature. The other is Kor Sanctifiers. I wanted to be able to take out an enchantment or artifact, and this will do either as needed. In this deck, it's removal that happens to be a creature, rather than the other way around.

For the long game, I included a pair of Emeria, the Sky Ruin. If your opponent has survived into the late game, then your strategies failed. Bring back creatures one at a time to try again. I recommend shadow creatures first. Because of Emeria, I decided to run just Plains as the other lands, instead of cycling lands or other options.

You have knights that cost everything from 1 to 4. Student of Warfare can come down early and get big very quickly. We have 6 shadow knights, including four that pump on the front!

We also have some knights that will hose people. Defender of Law can be flashed out as needed, and can also survive Red damage, such as Pyroclasm. Crusading Knight is a terror against Black decks. While it becomes very large very quickly, it also relies on its protection from Black to make it a pain. If your opponent is not playing Black, then it becomes just an expensive knight, so I only included two.

Kinsbaile Cavalier and Zhalfirin Commander can be used to help your knights. One gives them all double strike and the other can pump them. The pump is expensive, with a three mana cost each pump, but the ability can prove useful for spare mana. Since this is just a weenie deck, you'll often be sitting on mana, so it gives you options.

Knight of Dawn is great at staying alive because you can spend two {W} to give it protection from the color you want. It can swing through a defense for two damage, or stave off much larger creatures, or survive targeted removal or sweeping damage based removal. It's never a dead card, and not a bad recursion target for Emeria.

Finally, we have a full set of Swords to Plowshares as emergency creature removal. This serves to exile creature based defenses, combo pieces, or winning conditions. Although you only have four, they are a nice adjunct to your allies' decks. We'll take a look at them in a second.

This is a solid deck for fighting archenemies, because its creatures are resilient, fast, and can swing for a lot of damage. They can nip through defenses with protection and shadow. They get bigger and yet the deck has a few tricks with flash creatures, Swords, Emeria, and the Kor Sanctifiers. I hope you enjoy it!

Someone has to destroy the vile Bringer of Death, and it might as well be you!

Heroes Plan #2: A Different Kind of Control

The control deck from last week for Archenemy focused on the importance of handling multiple foes and card advantage. One for one trades are poor choices when you are going up against three or four or ten enemies.

Today, the heroes need a control deck, but a different sort of one. What they need is a deck that prevents the Archenemy from going off. It can use one for one trades, just as long as it can keep the archenemy at bay.

Let's take a look at just such a deck.

"I Veto"

• Spells (30)
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Dissipate
• 4 Faerie Trickery
• 4 Forbid
• 4 Mana Leak
• 2 Pongify
• 2 Capsize
• 2 Draining Whelk
• 4 Jace's Ingenuity

• Creatures (4)
• 2 Sower of Temptation
• 2 Oona, Queen of the Fae

• Lands (26)
• 4 Lonely Sandbar
• 22 Island

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This control deck tries to stop the archenemy from getting off their most powerful spells. With 20 counters in the deck, it can regularly end an archenemy's plans for world domination. Getting off a combo is now much harder to accomplish.

The 20 counters are obvious two and three drop counters, but supplementing them are two Draining Whelk, which really brings the counter total to 22. I've seen Draining Whelks win games on their own, as they can be quite large when they counter something important.

You have a pair of Capsize to send something back to the person's hand if they got past the counter shield. You can bounce blockers, combo pieces, winning conditions – whatever the person was relying on to win. And he thought he could control the world, the arrogant deluded fool.

There are counter-measures to your counter deck. Gaea's Herald is a good example. If your opponent has one down, and then tries to cast a vitally important spell, Capsize the counter-measure back to their hand, and then use a Dissipate or similar card to counter the dangerous spell.

Note that Dissipate and Faerie Trickery can exile an important card, and keep it away from the archenemy's graveyard. There's no reason to give your enemy fuel.

You do have a duo of creature removal cards in Pongify and Sower of Temptation. Pongify is for any important creature that gets past your teammates' creature removal and your counter shield. After that, Sower of Temptation can steal a creature, adding to your defense and offense.

Oona is perfect is this deck as a late finisher. She will exile cards from your opponent's deck while making a few 1/1 creatures to swarm past your opponent's defense. Meanwhile, she is sizeable all on her own. This is a great home for her.

I wrapped the deck up with the instant Jace's Ingenuity and cycling lands. This deck is jam packed with so many goodies that it doesn't have much room for card drawing, so I added what I could to the mix.

This may give you a further idea of how to match favorably against an archenemy deck. You might think that, given you have allies, perhaps you should remove your threats from this deck all together to focus more on card drawing or counters. I would advise against that. I think all decks should be able to win on their own, if reduced to a one on one situation. If the archenemy focuses cards and the schemes to eliminate a player, then I want the others to be able to pick up the slack.

Heroes Plan #3: Tempo

While the control deck keeps your archenemy from achieving their plans, and while aggro decks bring the pressure, there is another role yet to fill. It's not combo. I doubt you want to try and race an archenemy deck to a combo victory when you do not have the benefit of schemes.

Remember, schemes can defeat and destroy your plans. You think you have your opponent on the ropes, and have countered most of her spells, and you have exhausted her resources, and then the Enemy of the World flips up the scheme to draw four cards and reload, while casting them all. One is a tutor, one is a combo piece, and suddenly your foe wins.

You want to apply more pressure in the red zone than just one or two aggro decks, and yet you also want to keep back your foe. How do you do that? You play a tempo deck. Perhaps you'll play one like this.

"I Steal Your Time"

• Spells (20)
• 4 Abeyance
• 4 Aura of Silence
• 2 Swords to Plowshares
• 2 Safe Passage
• 2 Oblation
• 2 Mobilization
• 4 Spectral Procession

• Creatures (14)
• 4 Aven Mindcensor
• 2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 2 Commander Eesha
• 4 Dawn Elemental
• 2 Devout Witness

• Lands (26)
• 1 Kor Haven
• 4 Secluded Steppe
• 21 Plains

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This odd looking deck features a lot of ways to shut down your archenemy while also giving you paths to victory. First of all, please note the presence of real creatures in this deck. The control deck above only has a small number of creatures, but this one has several. It wants to swing along with aggro decks. You need creatures in force to break through defenses, because you are all attacking at once.

Let's look at the creature based way this deck can hose an archenemy. One of the most powerful cards you can play as a hero is Aven Mindcensor. Making tutor effects much less likely to succeed can virtually lock out a combo oriented archenemy. It can also stymie attempts to search for lands as well as some schemes. It is a powerful tool.

Commander Eesha and Dawn Elemental can block virtually any creature that attacks and keep it off you. Unblockable creatures, those with intimidate, those with landwalk, those with protection from White or creatures, and those with fear and intimidate are the only ones getting through. While it certainly is possible that your archenemy will send a couple of those sorts of creatures, you have Safe Passage and Oblation and Kor Haven and Swords to handle them. Meanwhile, anything else that comes your way will be stopped by an efficient group of defenders.

Eesha can nip in for two damage. She can never be blocked, and will always get in some damage against the archenemy. Having a creature that can serve no matter what defense is rallied against you is quite valuable.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence will shut down any non-mana activations on the archenemy's creatures. That's not too much of a shutdown. Non-creature artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers and lands will all still work. Triggered abilities and static abilities still function as well. Even with a minor number of abilities it shuts down, this is still pretty good. It prevents a large number of shenanigans that your foe might try.

Dawn Elemental will survive any damage based source of removal, from Lightning Bolt to Pestilence. Commander Eesha will survive any creature based source of removal, such as Avatar of Woe or Thrashing Wumpus. Each have some value in their ability to stick around.

Devout Witness can tap (and with a discard and mana) to Disenchant any permanent you want. That's pretty powerful in an environment full of artifacts right now, and with many archenemy's natural reliance on the artificial.

Aura of Silence will slow down your opponent and won't affect your teammates. Just the Evil One is affected by this enchantment. A lot of archenemy decks may be heavily impacted by Aura of Silence, and its presence can shut down combos that rely on playing an artifact or enchantment over and over again. For example, one of these in play will prevent Fruity Pebbles from winning the game (Shield Sphere, Goblin Bombardment, and Enduring Renewal. You replay the Shield Sphere over and over again after sacrificing it for a damage to the Bombardment and returning it to your hand with the Renewal). It also serves as an emergency Seal of Cleansing when needed.

Finally, we have Abeyance. This instant stops your opponent from playing instants, sorceries, or activating any non-mana ability. As a little bonus, you get to draw a card. They can still play permanents or attack, so it's not a total turn off. However, it can slow them down, or prevent them from going off with a combo for a turn while you r team tries to find an answer. For example, suppose we have the archenemy deck from last week that had the combo involving Blasting Station. This would shut that off, and stop the combo from winning that turn (because sacrificing to the Station is an activated ability).

There are just a few emergency cards here. Oblation handles almost any permanent on the board by shuffling it back into the owner's library. It gives them a couple of card, and should only be used in true emergencies. However, it is a cheap, instant answer to almost anything. It doesn't answer lands, but you can use it to shuffle something back into your library (or a teammate's) to draw two cards in a pinch.

You also have the afore-mentioned Safe Passage and Swords to Plowshares. Both are nice to stop various things the Arch-Foe of All Things might throw at you. From a creature swarm to a giant Earthquake, there are a lot of things this answers.

Finally, I gave you a few token making cards, with Spectral Procession and Mobilization. I wanted to give you something to do with extra mana and I wanted you to have the ability to contribute to the creature attack. I felt the deck needed more creatures than it already had. Therefore, I gave it some.

I hope that you found valuable these various strategies to attack the King of Wrong. He believes that his machinations will come true, but he doesn't know the purity of your hearts and the rightness of your souls. You will stop him. You must stop him, or all you know will be lost. I would wish you "good luck" but we shouldn't rely on luck to beat the Emperor of Evil. Instead, I wish you successful strategy.

Successful Strategies to you all!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent