In Magic the Gathering, 187 or Blink creatures are creatures that trigger abilities when they enter the battlefield (comes into play). The recent Magic Expansion Avacyn Restored have alot of cards that work well with cards that enter the battlefield. Hence I began making a deck that I call the Venser or Flicker deck. The reason why to call it Flicker is because the first card that made creatures go off and onto the battlefield without recasting is called Flicker and since then, this effect has been called ‘Flickering’ creatures in and out of the battlefield. Of course, the deck is based around a Planeswalker card called Venser, which you will read more about below.
Theme:
Like my Persist deck, I like to build decks that are fun to play, yet reasonably powerful. I don’t like decks that are too weak, or too strong. Basically I’m going to exploit the triggered ability of creatures that enter the battlefield repeatedly to create card advantage.
Lands: (20/60)
Every one of my 60 card decks have about 20 land. For this deck, I relied on a blue/white mana base since alot of blinking creatures are in blue and white. Hence I have 8 cards that are blue/white dual lands.
//Lands:20
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
6 Island
6 Plains
Creatures: (18/60)
For creatures, I just put creatures that are blue/white, reasonably cheap, and have a good effect when they enter the battlefield. I also tend to favor creatures that slow my opponent’s board development down. Wall of Omens is a good card drawing engine, and is much faster to cast than Mulldrifter, which I was also considering. Blade Splicer is going to be my card of choice for doing damage, and Gilded Drake is incredibly powerful, stealing opponent’s creatures for free! I also needed a way to gain life. Between Kitchen Finks and Aven Riftwatcher, I chose the Finks, just because its better at beatdown. Riftwing Cloudskate is my last major card, since it can bounce anything back to an opponent for 2 mana and 3 turns, or 5 mana. Man-o’-War didn’t have as much versatility. And of course, the best bouncer in the game, Venser, Shaper Savant because its amazing – it can counter spells and bounce anything back, it’s Riftwing Cloudskate on steroids. I also put a single copy of Restoration Angel in to fit the theme of the deck.
//Creatures:18
4 Wall of Omens
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Gilded Drake
3 Blade Splicer
3 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Restoration Angel
There are other creatures I could’ve considered. Fog Bank and Wall of Denial are amazing cards for defense. Stonecloaker is good against graveyard decks, Glen Elendra Archmage can single handedly wing a game for you if you keep blinking her, and the aforementioned Mulldrifter, Man-o’-War and Aven Riftwatcher are also good choices for the deck. Galepowder Mage is also worth considering, though a bit slow.
Non Creature Spells: (22/60)
The final third of the deck are non creature spells. Here, I mainly focused on cards that slow down an opponent, and focused mostly on defense. The centerpiece of the deck is Venser, the Sojourner. This guy kicks ass. He flickers any permanent you have, and is basically the win condition for the deck. I have 3 copies each of Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal which function for both offense and defense, AND returns my own creatures to my hand so I can re-use their abilities. Parallax Wave has been amazing for this deck because it exiles creatures for free, and can be used the same way as the Shard and the Portal. Umbilicus, Blood Clock and Equilibrium are obscure Magic cards that I put in this deck; nobody expects them and they get really annoyed once I play them. Simultaneously returning my creatures back to re-use their abilities for free while slowing down my opponent? sounds great. I also have copies of Propaganda and Ghostly Prison for slowing an opponents attackers down. I’ve had opponents had to pay 6 mana(!) before just to attack with one creature which I just return to their hand. It’s great. Finally, I have one of the best commons ever made: Rhystic Study. So, every spell an opponent plays costs one more or I get to draw a card? It’s just ridiculously good, especially in multiplayer. So the final decklist:
//Lands:20
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
6 Forest
6 Plains
//Creatures:18
4 Wall of Omens
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Gilded Drake
3 Blade Splicer
3 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Restoration Angel
//Non-Creatures: 22
3 Crystal Shard
3 Erratic Portal
3 Parallax Wave
2 Blood Clock or Umbilicus
2 Equilibrium
2 Propaganda
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Venser, the Sojourner
3 Rhystic Study
And thats it! Another fun, casual, multiplayer deck to play around with. As you can imagine, this deck takes a while to win, and is incredibly annoying to play against. Imagine paying one mana extra for each spell you cast, then paying an additional 4 mana to attack with each creature, then having mana open in case it gets returned to your hand, which probably will happen anyway because of Venser and Cloudskate. I pride myself on having built such an annoying yet effective deck :). Of course, cards like Otherworldly Journey and Momentary Blink are one shot effects to immediately gain the 187 effect. Conjurer’s Closet is basically a colorless Venser, which I should test with. To make this deck even more defensive, you can add in more copies of Norn’s Annex, Dissipation Field, Collective Restraint, Parallax Tide, Crawlspace, Teferi’s Moat, Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, and the rest of the cards. You can also add in Jace, the Mind Sculptor, who is really good in this deck, but also very expensive (being one of the best cards in Magic). Tamiyo, the Moon Sage can also work, though not as good as Jace. You can of course add Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and more copies of 2 Venser, the Sojourner. Angelic Chorus can be an alternative to gaining life. Sensei’s Divining Top is good in ANY deck, especially control decks. Finally, to make this deck 200% more annoying, please add in Tangle Wire, Sphere of Resistance, Lodestone Golem, Smokestack, Trinisphere, Thorn of Amethyst, Static Orb, Mishra’s Helix, Rishadan Port and your usual BS cards that will make your opponent hate you :).
Edit: I’ve made a Modern legal version below:
//Lands:20
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
6 Forest
6 Plains
//Creatures:22
4 Wall of Omens
4 Fog Bank
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Blade Splicer
2 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Restoration Angel
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
//Non-Creatures: 18
4 Crystal Shard
3 Blood Clock
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
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