Re: Lion's eye diamond: Banned in type 1

"Gustavo Fischer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> FRM wrote:
> > as someone (who?) will remember i re-started magic after 6 years of
> > stop...at that time i used to find a nearly awful card called, guess,
> > lion'eye diamond...now, after six yrs: banned! banned? i mean, if it
> > was banned there must be someone that broke the card! but how? this is
> > the question i ask you...i still have that diamond in the crap&lands
> > box, and still can't figure out how can a three mana boost with no
> > cards in hand to play be as effective as wotc say..

Lion's Eye Diamond (LED) functions as 4 extra black lotuses in a deck
known as Long.dec.  This is an example (not the best, but it's off the
top of my head) of a Long deck

1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
4 Chromatic Spheres
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
=16 artifacts

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Mind's Desire
1 Diminishing Returns (yes, another one of those crap rares from back
in the
                        day)
=13 blue

1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Burning Wish
=5 Red

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
1 Tendrils of Agony
=12 Black


1 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Seas
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
=14 Land
=60 total

The basic idea is to be able to cast enough spells to play the one
tendrils of agony in the deck to kill the opponent.  Typically, the
sideboard also contains a copy of the tendrils so that it can be
wished for.  Depending on the build, the sideboard may also contain
the yawgmoth's will and possibly some of the draw 7's (diminishing
returns or the wheel of fortune)

The lion's eye diamonds are abusive for two reasons.  First, if they
are sac'd in response to a draw seven, the LED will resolve first
(LIFO) forcing you to discard whatever is in your hand and giving you
three mana, then the draw seven will resolve and fill your hand.  Now,
you have the 3 mana from the LED to play any goodies that you just
drew.

More importantly, they are also abusive with yawgmoth's will.  Cast
the LED and the will in the same turn basically gets you 6 mana of any
color to play spells out of the graveyard and 3 spells toward the
storm count.  For example;
Cast LED (spell 1)
Cast Yawgmoth's Will (spell 2)
Sac LED in response for BBB, discarding hand and putting LED in
graveyard.
The will resolves so cast LED from the graveyard (spell 3)
Sac LED for RRR, remove LED from game
cast burning wish (already in graveyard from the LED) for tendrils of
agaony (spell 4)

Now you have your win condition in hand and whatever else is left in
the graveyard to get the storm count up, whether it's rituals,
brainstorms, chromatic spheres, whatever.  Most of your spells will
either give you mana or let you draw cards which will increase the
tendrils storm count.

Basically, the draw 7's, the ultra abusable yawgmoth's will, and the
storm mechanic combine to remove the drawback of LED

There's discussion ad infinitum at the starcity forums about the
Long.dec