Deckmasters
| File:Arigatou simbolo deckmasters.gif A small D | |||
| Released | December 2001 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 124 cards, 44 unique | ||
| Keywords | none | ||
| Mechanics | none | ||
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The Deckmasters 2001 was a set created in 2001 to showcase the epic match between Richard Garfield, the creator of the card game, and Jon Finkel, a Magic World Champion. Two decks were included in the set, a red/green deck that Richard Garfield used, and a red/black deck that was played by Finkel. This set was created to let players relive this famous match.
The match
The match was held in January of 2002. About a year before, Wizards of the Coast challenged both of them to build a deck out of Ice Age and Alliances cards to compete against each other with. They were given very strict criteria to build these decks such as each deck could only use four rare cards, and no more than two copies of any one card. Some cards were banned for the purpose of this event such as Kjeldoran Outpost. Finkel boasted that he would crush Garfield, although he was the only one that could lose anything if he lost. If Garfield lost people would take it as a given since Jon was the World Champ, on the other hand, if Finkel lost he would have to live it down for the rest of his career.
Finkel won match one because Garfield misplayed the current timing rules at least twice during the course of the game. Garfield joked, "Shouldn't we be playing by the rules as I made them?" In the second match, Garfield was defeated by lack of mana. "This is the first time I am sitting up here and am honestly unhappy that my opponent is manascrewed," Finkel confessed. Garfield could only watch as he was dominated by Finkel's Balduvian Horde. The score was in, and Finkel had dominated.