Planeshift Theme Deck #1 Barrage (Casual)

To win with the Barrage deck, pretend you're the Incredible Hulk after too much coffee: "Hulk mad! Hulk SMASH!" The idea is to deal 20 damage before your opponent knows what's going on. Barrage does this with cheap, fast creatures, and it uses Familiars to make your spells even cheaper.

You must play everything in your hand as quickly as you can, and attack at every oppotunity - even if it means losing creatures. Use your direct damage spells to get blockers out of the way. Don't be afraid to trade two cards for one if that's what it takes to press the attack. If you let yourself get into a stalemate, you'll probably lose!

Alpha Kavu, one of the deck's important cards, lets you get tricky during combat. Say your opponent blocks your Alpha Kavu with a 2/2 creature. Wait until combat damage goes on the stack, then make your guy a 1/3. Your Kavu will destroy the blocker and survive. You can also use its ability on the other eleven Kavu in the deck - or to neutralize your opponent's Kavu!

After your creature have gotten in some damage, think about turning the torch on your opponent. Sparkcaster is great for this, especially if you've got one or two Familiars in play. Each time Sparkcaster comes into play, it deals one damage to your opponent, and then you can choose to bounce it back to your hand. Think of it as a replayable Zap with a 5/3 creature built in. You can also return Thunderscape Battlemage or Flametongue Kavu to your hand when you play a Gating creature to get the most out of your creatures' comes-into-play abilities.

What happens if your opponent manages to stop your all-out attack and stall the game? You'll be in trouble. If you draw something that can catch your opponent off guard, wait patiently for the best opportunity to play it. If you don't think it's enough, wait for another one - a two card combo might be enough to turn the tide.