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Uncategorized Wednesday, August 4th 2010 at 12:56 pm

Inception Meets Magic: The Gathering: Duel Decks, Extractors Vs. Dreamers

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I love Inception, and I also love playing Magic: the Gathering. If only there were some way to experience both of those wonderful things at once. Well, I made such a way. For those of you who aren’t aware of the recent Magic product lines, they have introduced a new gimmick called “Duel Decks” where two classic foes duke it out with an army of spells. Each deck is designed to reflect the magical style of its protagonist, species, or faction. So today, I am honored to present Duel Decks: Extractors Vs. Dreamers.

Below are two 40-card deck lists and the accompanying card images. Click any card to see it larger in better quality. Print them out or make proxies and let me know if the decks are actually at all balanced, or just throw a Mal Cobb card into your mono-black aggro deck and see if your friends notice. Enjoy!

Extractors Deck

Lands (17):
9x Island
6x Swamp
2x Mountain

Creatures (13):
4x Projection
2x Nash, Failed Architect
2x Arthur, The Point Man
1x Eames, The Forger
1x Ariadne, The Architect
1x Yusuf, The Chemist
1x Mal Cobb
1x Dom Cobb

Other Spells (10):
2x Sedated Death
2x Kick
2x Changing The Dream World
1x We Need To Go Deeper
1x Ariadne’s Totem
1x Arthur’s Totem
1x Cobb’s Totem

Dreamers Deck:

Lands (17):
7x Plains
7x Forest
3x Mountain

Creatures (15):
2x Aware Projections
2x Projection
2x Train Of Thought
2x Subconscious Security
2x James and Phillipa
1x Maurice Fischer
1x Miles, The Professor
1x Peter Browning
1x Robert Fischer
1x Saito, The Tourist

Other Spells (8):
2x Always Imagine New Places
2x Brace Your Mind
2x Projection Strike
2x Purge The Dream

Whether extractors or dreamers reign, one thing is certain: I have too much time on my hands.

These cards were created using Magic Set Editor; the text is the author’s own. They are obviously not endorsed by or affiliated with Magic: The Gathering or Inception, but are the product of pure fan love and appreciation.

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  • PuckLove

    What’s with the Bioshock-ripoff logo? But anyways, this is cool and makes me wish I still had my Magic cards.

  • zeonchar

    OK, these are pretty awesome.

  • JiangWei23

    Amazing! Flavorful to the movie and yet still interesting enough for MtG! I submitted your set to a Magic forum that discusses these sorts of things, check out the discussion here:

    http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=263185

    Also, looking through your set and seeing a large reliance on tapped creatures as being “asleep” and “waking up”, I made some cards that I thought would help round out the set a little bit, both in functionality and flavor:

    Sedative (1U)
    Sorcery
    Tap target creature an opponent controls. That creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.

    “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” (1R)
    Instant
    Sacrifice a creature: Untap any number of creatures you control.

    (The song in the film they use to wake up. I’m not sure what color music is, so I dropped it in red since red has passionate and creative aspects)

    Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous (5)
    Artifact
    CARDNAME enters the battlefield with X extractor counters on it, where X is the number of creatures you control.
    T: If an opponent controls a tapped creature, you may have X number of creatures you control assign their combat damage to that opponent as though they weren’t blocked, where X is the number of extractor counters on CARDNAME minus the number of Spirits that opponent controls.
    3: Tap target creature an opponent controls.

    (The dream machine the extractors use in the film. Flavorwise, this represents how the extractors can enter the dream world but can be hindered by projections.)

    Hope you liked these!

  • Fishy

    Amazing concept, and some really nice and flavourful cards. I had a lot of fun reading through these.

    A fair few balance issues though. The costs are all to clustered around 3 and 4, and there are a few problem rules. The Dreamers get all the removal spells and the extractors get the only flying for example.

    The main problem with them as playable cards though is just that they’ve been designed almost solely for flavour. The flavour is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but the card abilities would be pretty broken in a real match. Also there is a lack of interaction between the two decks. The abilities push the decks towards each playing their own game.

    I did some pretty heavy tweaking and made a half-dozen additions, building on your groundwork, if you’re interested in having a look. Would have been handy to have access you your files, but I had to start from scratch. Gonna print them out and give them some test runs today with my housemates, I’ll let you know how we get on!

    And thanks again for the great set idea!