Part 1

How many of you can remember the day Fallen Empires came out? Running over to your local hobby shop as soon as you were out of school or work, buying as many packs as you could for $20. How many of you remember opening that first pack and thinking “What the F$!K is a Thrull?” Well 5 years later, here we are. Still asking the same question. Our confusion only grew when, a few months later, Homelands was released. Now we had to ask ourselves “What the @$!# is a thrull, and should I play with them or Joven’s Ferrets?” Well today we will try to answer that question with an analysis of both sets and what they brought to the game of magic.

Thrulls…Love ‘em or Hate ‘em!

Theme decks were not easily done before the fall of the empire. We had Goblin King and Lord of Atlantis. But not many Goblins or Merfolk to make a quality deck. So Wizards responded to our concerns with enough of these little critters to fill up Yankee stadium. Ebon Praetor was a popular leader for this deck as he got bigger and bigger each turn when a thrull was sacrificed in his name. Much in the way our new beloved Spiritmonger does. You can see the similarities in the two. Thrull champion helped enhance you army and brought added protection against an opposing thrull deck. With Board control like Mindstab thrull and Soul Exchange this deck could easily take control of the game before your opponent knew what hit him.


The Icatians are coming, The Icatians are coming…

Ahhh…how many times I heard those words ringing through the streets of Southern New Jersey. The beginning of what we now know as Rebels. Icatian Skirmishers were the glue that held this deck together. 4 mana for a 1/1 might sound bad. But an army of Banding, First Striking creatures was a force like no other. Along with Icatian town you could quickly form an army of these guys. Icatian Moneychanger was great for adding some life gain to the deck, which allowed it to really compete with the thrulls and other decks that would soon come to the top of the ladder. I remember having to ask the storeowners if they enforced a life cap, so I could use these guys to their full potential.


Fungus and Thallids and Spores…Oh My!

It all starts with Fungal Bloom. GG:put a spore counter on target fungus. The biggest problem I had was deciding which fungus to put my spore counters on. This card was an Engine all by itself when combo'd with Elvish Farmer and Thallids. This deck was sub-par compared to the other decks of the times and really had trouble getting started as it was always on the defense against Thrulls and Icatians.


The Chaff

Then we had the cards that didn’t get much play at the time. Delif’s Cone and Delif’s Cube. With these two cards on the table you could conceivably attack with EIGHT creatures and not deal a single point of damage to your opponent. If that’s not board control, then I don’t know what is! How about that Tourach?! The guy sure could sing, but don’t call him if you need a locksmith. Tourachs gate… Sacrifice a Thrull: Put three time counters on Tourach's Gate. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from Tourach's Gate. If there are no time counters on Tourach's Gate, sacrifice it. Enchanted land has "T: Attacking creatures you control get +2/-1 until end of turn." Unfortunately this card doesn’t come into play with any Time counters on it, so it goes to the graveyard immediately after it comes into play, BUT, if you can find a way to cast this bad-boy during your attack step then you can give your creatures +2/-1 in response to it dying. Its board tricks like this that wins games. Homarid Spawning Bed…enough said about that one.

So as you can see Fallen Empires brought a high level of competition to the game of magic. Who knows where the Pro Tour would be if the empire had never fallen. One can only wonder. Would this set thrive though in the Homelands of Dominaria as well as it did prior to Wizards latest expansion? Find out in Part 2 of “The Eternal Debate”

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

Part 1

How many of you can remember the day Fallen Empires came out? Running over to your local hobby shop as soon as you were out of school or work, buying as many packs as you could for $20. How many of you remember opening that first pack and thinking “What the F$!K is a Thrull?” Well 5 years later, here we are. Still asking the same question. Our confusion only grew when, a few months later, Homelands was released. Now we had to ask ourselves “What the @$!# is a thrull, and should I play with them or Joven’s Ferrets?” Well today we will try to answer that question with an analysis of both sets and what they brought to the game of magic.

Thrulls…Love ‘em or Hate ‘em!

Theme decks were not easily done before the fall of the empire. We had Goblin King and Lord of Atlantis. But not many Goblins or Merfolk to make a quality deck. So Wizards responded to our concerns with enough of these little critters to fill up Yankee stadium. Ebon Praetor was a popular leader for this deck as he got bigger and bigger each turn when a thrull was sacrificed in his name. Much in the way our new beloved Spiritmonger does. You can see the similarities in the two. Thrull champion helped enhance you army and brought added protection against an opposing thrull deck. With Board control like Mindstab thrull and Soul Exchange this deck could easily take control of the game before your opponent knew what hit him.


The Icatians are coming, The Icatians are coming…

Ahhh…how many times I heard those words ringing through the streets of Southern New Jersey. The beginning of what we now know as Rebels. Icatian Skirmishers were the glue that held this deck together. 4 mana for a 1/1 might sound bad. But an army of Banding, First Striking creatures was a force like no other. Along with Icatian town you could quickly form an army of these guys. Icatian Moneychanger was great for adding some life gain to the deck, which allowed it to really compete with the thrulls and other decks that would soon come to the top of the ladder. I remember having to ask the storeowners if they enforced a life cap, so I could use these guys to their full potential.


Fungus and Thallids and Spores…Oh My!

It all starts with Fungal Bloom. GG:put a spore counter on target fungus. The biggest problem I had was deciding which fungus to put my spore counters on. This card was an Engine all by itself when combo'd with Elvish Farmer and Thallids. This deck was sub-par compared to the other decks of the times and really had trouble getting started as it was always on the defense against Thrulls and Icatians.


The Chaff

Then we had the cards that didn’t get much play at the time. Delif’s Cone and Delif’s Cube. With these two cards on the table you could conceivably attack with EIGHT creatures and not deal a single point of damage to your opponent. If that’s not board control, then I don’t know what is! How about that Tourach?! The guy sure could sing, but don’t call him if you need a locksmith. Tourachs gate… Sacrifice a Thrull: Put three time counters on Tourach's Gate. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from Tourach's Gate. If there are no time counters on Tourach's Gate, sacrifice it. Enchanted land has "T: Attacking creatures you control get +2/-1 until end of turn." Unfortunately this card doesn’t come into play with any Time counters on it, so it goes to the graveyard immediately after it comes into play, BUT, if you can find a way to cast this bad-boy during your attack step then you can give your creatures +2/-1 in response to it dying. Its board tricks like this that wins games. Homarid Spawning Bed…enough said about that one.

So as you can see Fallen Empires brought a high level of competition to the game of magic. Who knows where the Pro Tour would be if the empire had never fallen. One can only wonder. Would this set thrive though in the Homelands of Dominaria as well as it did prior to Wizards latest expansion? Find out in Part 2 of “The Eternal Debate”

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!