Holiday Hodown

There wasn't really any strategy to today's deck when I started creating it. Actually quite the opposite, I was thinking about it being December, Christmas etc and then I thought hey, MtG has the Christmas colours, why not write about a deck with holiday/winter-type cards? And thus, Holiday Hodown [or HoHo] was born!

Now obviously, a deck such as Holiday Hodown should be Red and Green, so the real question is whether or not to include White. I decided to do so because I had considered it immediately as a Christmas colour when the deck concept was conceived. Unlike the other decks that I write about, HoHo isn't that well tuned or researched despite being a mathematical equation. Don’t believe that? It's actually quite simple: WRG + Christmas = deck.

So even with the holiday theme being an inspiration to HoHo, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need a strategy as well. When looking through the possible Christmas-y type cards, I decided to concentrate on a pretty simple premise: protect your butt with various cards as you collect the Stormbind/Squees ‘combo’ to destroy the opponent.

White. Let’s start with White and see why it earned its place in HoHo. When playing a deck with White, it should almost always start with 4 Swords to Plowshares. This is the single greatest creature removal card in the game, and has had that title since Alpha. We also want mom around to lend us her support and get us to the mid-late game. Lastly, White also gives us the lesser-known Blinking Spirit, which used to be a powerhouse card back in the day and does a good job here protecting its owner’s butt.


Red.

Alrighty so we’ve covered White, let’s see what the two main colours get us; starting with Red. Lightning Bolt. Moving on.


Ok ok, other than Bolt, Red gives us two key cards in the deck actually – it’s the R in Stormbind and it gives us our pal Squee. Now while he can protect us early on, we actually want the Nabob in our hands to drop to Stormbind. In this way, his Legend-status doesn’t even matter. It’s also worth noting that Stormbind doesn’t stack, however the play set is there as excess copies can just be used with the one in play to damage the opponent or their creatures.

Green.

Elves! Yep, and we went with the winter-themed Elves due to their added holiday-status. With G, we also get to play trees, both as creatures and as library manipulation/card draw. Nemata in particular was chosen because she can also act as an alternate win condition. Sylvan Library is awesome at re-stocking your hand, and isn’t two-sided the way Mine is. I did a 2/2 split however, as you want to keep drawing with Mine, which just isn’t possible with Library.

I had considered Land Tax in the deck, but it wasn’t really in the theme and is better in a Seismic Edge-type deck. There is certainly room to customize as you want, so put some personality into your own holiday deck and enjoy. Happy Brewing and Happy Holidays!

Holiday Hodown

4 Taiga

4 Plateau

1 Snow-Covered Plains

1 Snow-Covered Forest

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Windswepth Heath

4 City of Traitors

Total: 22

Creatures

4 Mother of Runes

4 Blinking Spirit

1 Nemata, Grove Guardian

4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Goblin Snowman

4 Fyndhorn Elves

1 Mirrorwood Treefolk

1 Weatherseed Treefolk

1 Groundskeeper

Total: 21

Spells

4 Stormbind

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Enlightened Tutor

2 Sylvan Library

2 Howling Mine

Total: 17

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant

1 Replenish

2 Disenchant

2 Humility

2 Pyroclasm

Tendrelves

Do you enjoy watching tendrils destroy someone? Are you not Japanese hentai? Then here’s a deck you might enjoy. Hey, that’s deck: d – e – c – k. Alrighty, now that those readers are gone, let’s take a look at our cards; which combine a swarm/aggro-type strategy with an alternate Storm combo win condition. Today we are going to be talking about Tendrelves.

Concordant Crossroads, despite not being in the deck name, plays a very important role in Tendrelves. While it does provide Haste to your opponent’s creatures as well, this deck has been built to optimize Crossroads, giving it the advantage. How does it do this? By using mana and card drawing to keep its creature-casting engine working.

As mentioned, the ‘engine’ pieces are what allow Tendrelves to play its strategies so well. The card drawing super team – Wirewood Symbiote, Multani’s Acolyte and Sylvan Messenger – all synergize in numerous ways to do this. The only caveat really is that while each card can work with the other, Symbiote doesn’t get drawn by Messenger, so you don’t want them in your top 4 when playing Sylvan. Symbiote’s uses in re-playing mana dorks and Acolyte/Messenger do make it amazing however, even without considering its combat shenanigans, so never not include a play set in the deck.

While the super team allows you to swarm an opponent, it can also allow you to storm an opponent. By drawing and casting your creatures, you are also building a storm count, allowing you to hit your opponent with Tendrils. Both Sylvan Messenger and Multani’s Acolyte are great here, as they let you draw into spells. It’s worth noting that should you be hoping to win via Storm, unless the Tendrils are in your hand, you want to draw deep with Multani’s Acolyte when you can as it allows you to draw the Storm card.

Alright, now the other ‘engine’ pieces – the mana dorks team. When you look at the creatures listed in the deck, you might notice that nearly every one not in the card drawing super team create mana. The only one that doesn’t, Quirion Ranger, can be used to untap them and thus can also be included on the mana dorks team. This is also the team that wants to abuse Concordant Crossroads by allowing you to use the creatures you just put on the board to play the other creatures you just drew with the other engine. Sweet synergy, right?

While I normally mention several strategic examples in these articles, Tendrelves has such a high number that I didn’t want to tackle them. Instead, I wrote about their uses so that you can look at the cards and discover them on your own. Elves decks all have several tricky plays so just remember to keep the board state in mind with each play. Happy Brewing!

Tendrelves

Land:

5 Forest

4 Gaea’s Cradle

4 Bayou

5 Fetch lands

1 Pendelhaven

Total: 19

Creatures:

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Fyndhorn Elves

4 Priest of Titania

4 Quirion Ranger

4 Wirewood Symbiote

4 Birchlore Ranger

4 Multani’s Acolyte

4 Sylvan Messenger

2 Elves of Deep Shadow

Total: 34

Spells:

4 Concordant Crossroads

1 Regrowth

2 Tendrils of Agony

Total: 7

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Wellwisher

2 Naturalize

2 Elves of Deep Shadow

4 Duress

1 Elvish Scrapper

1 Elvish Lyrist

WR Seismic Edge

The namesake cards in today’s library have both seen play in numerous decks throughout the years. The reason being is that the two cards just happen to be in that sweet build-around-me genre that brewers adore. It also helps that their similarities mean you don’t have to rely on a single play set to make the entire deck work. That latter point can be crucial, as limiting your win condition to a single card can be a shuddering thought to many players. So how do the two do as a team? Let’s see in WR Seismic Edge.

Seismic Assault vs. Land’s Edge. Despite the harsher casting cost, the deck plays a 4:1 ratio with regards to Assault vs. Edge. What might shock you is that there are actually numerous reasons to do so, rather than simply the most obvious one. Naturally, it would be ridiculous not to address that versatility is important, however I do want to point out a less considered aspect as well – Land’s Edge is an Enchant World. A what? Essentially, this means there can only be one in play at a time. Thus Edge can be destroyed by other Enchant Worlds that are played as well, whether they be by you or your opponent.

Petrified Field might seems like an odd choice here since it can hinder our chances at playing Seismic Assault, however the card can also be a god-send in certain board states. How? With Land Tax in play, it can be used to lower your land count should an opponent manage to even themselves’ with yours. Another thing to consider is that while Wasteland can be a more aggressive option in the same slot/role, it doesn’t provide you with a way to recoup a land you might actually need to play against your opponent.

Re: Land Tax – despite being a linchpin in re-stocking your hand with lands, Tithe should not be ignored. Heck, it can actually be better in several circumstances. A main point is that Tithe doesn’t require you to have less land than the opponent, which can certainly be relevant. It can also be played whenever, so you can use it when the opponent thinks you only have 1 card in hand and they’ve got a 4-toughness creature in play. Also, Tithe just says Plains on it, so you can use it to get Plateaus should you require the red mana.

Why the Winds of Change? Whenever you incorporate just one copy of a card in your deck, you should always have a good reason to do so. In this case, we added Winds to get rid of hands with dead cards in them. Once you have an Assault in play, any Lotus Petals, Mox Diamonds, extra Assaults et cetera can be considered unnecessary. Rather than playing them anyway, why not use them to your advantage?

I think it’s interesting that the really old Land’s Edge decks were WR, while the newer Seismic Assault decks tend to choose RG. With Ancient being in the middle, I had actually considered which option to pursue. I plan to write about RG at some point so I won’t talk about it at length here, but just know it’s certainly viable should you want to explore your options. Happy Brewing!

WR Seismic Edge

Land

14 Plains

9 Mountain

4 Plateau

2 Petrified Field

1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Total: 30

Spells

4 Seismic Assault

1 Land’s Edge

4 Mox Diamond

4 Land Tax

4 Tithe
4 Lotus Petal

2 Lodestone Bauble

4 Blood Moon

1 Winds of Change

2 Lightning Bolt

Total: 30

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Pyroblast

2 Pyroclasm

1 Disenchant

Dreamstone

Person A: Draw. Go.
Person B: $#&* you

Ah yes, the age-old MtG in-game conversation. Control decks have existed since the early days, when good removal and prison cards were actually printed. Oftentimes, the most popular win conditions for these types of decks wasn’t even a creature, it was an artifact – Millstone. In fact, this is where the term mill, to ‘deck’ an opponent, actually originated. Shocking, right?? RIGHT?? One of my favourite things about MtG is when old forgotten gems find new homes. In truth, there are many cards whose combos/uses have existed for years, which are only now being discovered. Today we look at such a discovery, as we delve into the WU goodness that is Dreamstone.

At first glance, Dreamstone shares several similarities with a draw-go type of deck, as they both command strong and versatile answers to their opponent’s strategies. While concentrating on control, and despite its seemingly meager number of win conditions, Dreamstone actually has a couple of ways to take the game. It can either beat down with flying creatures once you have stabilized the board, or it can mill the opponent using a combination of Millstone and Howline Mine, the latter of which also helps ensure you have control cards in your hand.

The combo. Many people don’t think of combos when they conjure a control deck, yet that is exactly what this deck wants to do. Establishing the combo that is Millstone and Field of Dreams allows you to control your opponent and win the game. How? When you can decide what your opponent draws, it ensures they either a) have no threats or b) they simply don’t have cards that you don’t have an answer to in your own hand/board. The bonus being that this control combo can act as a win con as well so you don’t have to rely on good old Serra Angel each game.

Brainstorm is incredible in this deck. Okay okay, Brainstorm is incredible in any deck – so let me clarify: Brainstorm is super incredible in this deck. Why? Not only does it do its normally amazing things, y’know, smoothing draws, protecting hands, et cetera, but it also has some extra uses you can exploit. You see, what makes Brainstorm extra special in Dreamstone is that it also helps protect the top card of your library from your own shenanigans. Pretty sweet, eh?

Aggro. Simply put, aggro is probably the greatest threat to Dreamstone. Other control decks can be a bit slow, which helps you lock your control pieces into place. To combat aggro, the deck contains several cards mainboard, such as Moat and Wrath of God. You may want to consider options such as Teferi’s Moat as a budget alternative, which is conveniently WU. It also has Swords to Plowshares, which are great for those T1-2 threats. Lastly, the sideboard also contains Wing Shards, which is a lesser-known Storm card, which can be great against weenie strategies.

One last piece I want to mention is Stifle, which is a great control card here for a variety of reasons. Not only can it destroy their mana base; it can also stop their attempts at library manipulation, aka not allowing our Field of Dreams/Millstone combo to decide their next play.

Closing thoughts. I had considered adding Black to the deck to include Misinformation, another way to control the opponent’s draws. I decided against it because I didn’t want to add another colour and because the latter could work against our deck drawing-victory strategy. I’m not convinced it couldn’t work however, and encourage others to try it out. Happy Brewing!

Dreamstone

Land

4 Tundra

4 Island

4 Plains

4 Wasteland

1 Forbidding Watchtower

8 Fetch Lands

Total: 25

Creatures

4 Serra Angel

Total: 4

4 Field of Dreams

2 Moat

2 Humility

4 Millstone

4 Brainstorm

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Pacifism

4 Howling Mine

4 Stifle

1 Wrath of God

1 Disenchant

Total: 31

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Counterspell

1 Disenchant

1 Armageddon

1 Wing Shards

WB Death and Taxes

Today we are going to be looking at a deck that continues to win in every (non-rotating) format it is viable in. Having had many iterations throughout the years, it has evolved and taken on different names in present times. With its origins in aggro abandoned, at least in modern formats, it has adjusted to attacking the opponent’s mana base to destroy them. It also has some famous supporters as none other than Benjamin Frankline once wrote, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except [WB] death and taxes”.

While most iterations of the deck are simply mono-white, there are a couple variants that exist. I decided to take the WB route, as it offers a decent amount of support to our main strategy – mana denial. While black tends to attack the opponent’s land directly, it adds some nice synergy and options that a mono-white deck does not.

Speaking of mana, I decided to go with plain (pun) old mana lands as opposed to fetch lands. This might seem odd in a bi-colour deck, but I just don’t think that the deck thinning strategy is worth the drop in mana-producing lands. Also, without a really viable way to cheat creatures into play, Mercadian Lift doesn’t count, it’s not how we win with WB D&T. Why? Because this deck uses a high number of mana to both lock down their opponent’s while beating them down with creatures/man lands.

Sol lands? This was a tough call and one you might want to consider. Sol lands and Mox Diamond means you can in theory cast T1 Glowrider or Spheres pretty consistently. The reason I didn’t choose this path is because a Force of Will by your opponent can really ruin this, and I wanted the deck to have some versatility. WB D&T can cast T1 Sphere with Diamond, but it can also choose to Encroach or Verdict them as well. Because this is a game of choices, I prefer that my T1 have options, which this deck certainly allows.

While Hymn is obviously better than Gerrard’s Verdict, the deck does not play a high number of swamps, so the BB just isn’t smart to play. The 4 Mox Diamond can help cast them, however I chose to use Verdict simply because WB is a heck of a lot easier to play in this version D&T. You might decide to go the Hymn route and it could very well be the superior choice.

Other choices. One think I had actually considered when writing about today’s deck was whether or not to go WG instead. While it doesn’t really add the land destruction support that B does, it can lend options to the other aspects that are also important. Skyshroud Cutter can be a 0-cost creature, and Hunting Grounds is many options that allow you to ‘cheat’ creatures into play. Who knows, I might even write about a WG D&T deck at some point. Happy Brewing!

WB Death and Taxes

Land

7 Plains

1 Swamp

4 Scrubland

1 Kjeldoran Outpost

4 Mishra’s Factory

4 Wasteland

4 Rishadan Port

Total: 25

Creatures

4 Mother of Runes

4 Glowrider

Total: 8

Spells

4 Mox Diamond

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Vendetta

4 Sphere of Resistance

4 Encroach

1 Gerrard’s Verdict

1 Disenchant

4 Duress

4 Vindicate

Total: 27

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Defense Grid

1 Disenchant

2 Wrath of God

4 Orim’s Chant

Squirrel Graveyard

They say restriction breeds creativity – if that’s the case, we’re gonna need a bit of imagination innovating today’s deck. It’s been some time since we last looked at a tribal build, and today’s stack of cards is one of the narrowest tribes in existence. Why? Because while most tribes see some cards printed in nearly every set, today’s band of brothers only saw print in a couple of them. Despite this however, it has become one of the most beloved in the game. So without wasting any other words on this introduction, grab your nuts and prepare to play with a Squirrel Graveyard.

One of the main strengths of Squirrels is also one of its main weaknesses: colour choices. Because they are only available in Green, choosing whether or not you want to add another colour can be tough. I know this may seem like a pretty simple decision, yet there is certainly some strength in playing only one as well. Today I chose to add a second colour because I wanted decent creature removal; you may notice however, that that was about the only reason I did, as I did not want to stray from the main strategy of the deck. Going the route of extra ramp and the high CMC removal that G has at its disposable is certainly viable as well.

To be honest, despite being a semi-combo deck, I think that Squirrel Graveyard seems to be pretty straightforward. The cards are simple enough to understand and the strategy is pretty obvious. I think what gives the deck some resilience is its ability to win with or without a combo in play. Simillar to Elves, this deck can just win via swarming the enemy with critters. Nest, Harvest and Chatter are all great ways at generating some virtual card advantage via tokens. And those are just a small number of options the deck provides.

Did I just say a small number? That’s right! You see, the deck also contains a number of creatures that enjoy popping out our tiny friends. The creatures in question are Deranged Hermit, Nut Collector and Squirrel Wrangler. These are good not only because they create squirrel armies on their own, but also because they are 1-man win conditions as well. You see, each one can both create and strengthen our squirrel tokens. Now they are what I call awesome win conditions!

Things to consider. As previously mentioned, pairing the deck with a secondary colour (and which one) can vary depending on preference. Card choices and even strategy are also debatable, as ramp, emphasis on combo and even graveyard-utility are not set in stone. Squirrel-based decks can and do offer a number of options that you might want to consider. Happy Brewing!

Squirrel Graveyard

Land

5 Forest

1 Swamp

2 Gaea’s Cradle

4 Bayou

8 Fetch lands

4 Wasteland

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Deranged Hermit

4 Squirrel Mob

2 Nut Collector

1 Squirrel Wrangler

Total: 15

Spells

4 Chatter of the Squirrel

4 Acorn Harvest

1 Squirrel Nest

4 Entomb

4 Reanimate

4 Exhume

Total: 21

Sideboard

4 Naturalize

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Innocent Blood

2 Defense Grid

1 Ensnaring Bridge

Power Artifact

Today’s deck stems from one of the earliest available combos in history, harkening back to the Antiquities expansion and the awesome cards that it brought to the game. I know I know, yes another old deck with some Ancient improvements. So can ya guess which format I’ve been playing these days? The funny thing is, the combo itself is pretty good as far as 3-card combos go; in fact, it’s also gotten to be pretty expensive, as the price of its key cards have quadrupled thanks to its relative prominence in 93/94 Magic. Now I know what you might be thinking: dude, the two formats are quite different. My question is: So? In our case, that’s beneficial because we have better cards to enable/protect the combo. Alright, enough with the introduction, let’s start chiseling away at today’s deck: Power Monolith.

I’d say a good place to start today’s article is with the name of the deck: Power Monolith – which we shall now refer to as P. Mon. While we don’t play with the original Basalt Monolith that made P. Mon possible back in the day, the awesome coincidence-ness of the game means we get to keep the name and use a better card in Grim Monolith. Same effect(ish) with a better CMC? Yes please. While Grim does cost 4 to untap, it’s not really relevant because of Power Artifact – it just means we can play it for less mana and thus win the game on a tighter clock.

Speaking of mana, next let’s talk about Mox Diamond. Because we don’t have the use of the original Moxen in Ancient, that means Mox Diamond has to do twice the work. Not only does it help ramp our mana, but it also helps fix it (along with our Bird pals). In a three colour deck where we want two U mana open for Power Artifact and Counterspell, the Diamond/bird duo can certainly be relevant.

Why two colours? One of the things the Old School versions are doing is including G for Regrowth and Stream of Life. I am a bit divided on this as Regrowth is an awesome card but we can use other graveyard recursion without going into another colour. I think the addition of Regrowth on its own doesn’t warrant it in Ancient, however the 4x Naturalize available to us in the sideboard does. Enchantments are one of the best ways to destroy our combo and if we don’t get them with a counter spell then it would be Game Over without a way to destroy their defenses.

The win! When deciding on how to win with the deck, I had started with Kaervek’s Torch – a somewhat obscure Sorcery from the Mirage expansion. Why Torch? The original deck uses Fireball, which provides some defensive versatility as it has the added benefit of being able to take out a bunch of aggro creatures should you need to. I decided to go with Torch because this is not a control deck  and if we are going to use one of our X CMC cards then I want to do it to win the game. To cut to the chase - Torch helps protect itself from counter magic, which is awesome.

What do you Recall here? The last decision I want to talk about is the addition of Recall in the deck alongside the Regrowth . While it’s true that Regrowth is generally the better card, (it’s a Demonic Tutor for the graveyard), there are scenarios where you might prefer the one with the card disadvantage. Recall can often be the superior card in P. Mon because it can get you any number of your combo pieces to win the game. If you had a Power Artifact on a Grim Monolith and the latter gets destroyed, then you might want to get both of them back if there are none in your hand.

I know I focused on the mana base a number of paragraphs today, and I think it’s important to end on it as well. In a deck that can create infinite mana, the lands that you play are incredibly important. In that sense, I do want to point out that playing one colour could open the door to Sol lands, which provide their own pros and cons to the deck. This is simply something you may want to consider, as the final decision on how to play is yours to decide. Happy Brewing!

Power Monolith

Land

4 Island

2 Mountain

2 Forest

4 Tropical Island

4 Volcanic Island

8 Fetch lands

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Birds of Paradise

Total: 4

Spells

4 Mox Diamond

4 Power Artifact

4 Grim Monolith

4 Brainstorm

1 Sleight of Hand

4 Force of Will

2 Kaervek’s Torch

1 Stream of Life

1 Regrowth

1 Braingeyser

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Recall

4 Counterspell

Total: 32

Sideboard

4 Naturalize

1 Red Elemental Blast

1 Pyroblast

2 Pyroclasm

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Ground Seal

2 Peek

Mono Red Control

So here’s a question: ever hear of a Mono Red deck that seeks to control the opponent?  Other than decks that focus on Blood Moon and/or Land Destruction, I admit I am not that familiar with any. I think the reason for that is that people tend to only consider Red as an aggressive colour. Because of this, the decision to control an opponent with it can be an interesting endeavour; one that we are going to be undertaking today. So let’s see what we can brew with Mono Red Control, shall we?

Let’s begin today’s article with an often ignored aspect of the burn spell – they are not just good in aggro, they’re also great in control. Simple, right? The smart burn player knows how and when to use their damage dealing instants/sorceries. Wait, am I suggesting you don’t just burn their stupid smug face again and again to utterly crush them and earn the respect of the father who left you? Why yes I am! Ahem. Anyway, let’s get back on topic - how to control your opponent using those aforementioned burners. Because the colour does not really offer any conventional form of card drawing advantage, you want to be efficient with the spells that you have. In other words: decide which creatures don’t pose a threat, and focus on those that can or do.

Artifacts. Despite Red’s seeming hatred of them, artifacts are a great way to plug the holes in the colour’s arsenal. Some great examples are Ensnaring Bridge and Mana Web – both cards allow amazing ways to stop your opponent in their tracks. The aforementioned rationing of your burn spells (+ Bridge), along with their utility, can also help ensure who and what get to attack, along with when. Mana Web on the other hand combos amazingly with Rishadan Port (a great card in its own right), to just stop your opponent from casting any cardboard. See what I mean? Always consider artifacts in your decks.

Varchild`s War-Riders may just be a 1-of in the deck, but it is a pretty interesting card that I wanted to talk about. I know that I’ve written about this before, but Wizards really were a clever bunch back in the day. Did you take a look at the card? No problem, as I am pretty certain you don’t know what it does. The cumulative cost of giving your opponent an army of 1/1 blockers is negated by its trample and rampage 1. Normally I would consider this an aggro creature because you don’t want it to stay around creating an army for your opponent. I put it in as a 1-of for the late game however, because it deals decent damage and is Bolt-proof. The inclusion of Goblin Sharpshooter also helps negate those pesky 1/1s War-Riders creates, along with any others the opponent might cast.

I’ve written about the Brawler creatures in the past, so I won’t delve too deeply into them here. I am going to reiterate however that I think they are good as both aggro and/or control because of the decisions they create for your opponent. Does your opponent stall the their board to stop the Brawlers from attacking, or do they spend their mana and leave themselves open to your creatures?

Whew, alright so in creating this control deck, was there anything else that I had considered? Actually, there was a variety of choices that I decided not to pursue this time around. War-Riders could be a very nice combo with Aether Flash, which is itself a neat piece of Red control against creature-based decks. Impending Disaster and Blood Moon were other considerations as well, but I didn’t want to focus on Land Destruction with this particular deck. I hope you enjoy tinkering at home and seeing what works for you. Happy Brewing!

Mono Red Control

Land

8 Mountain

4 Ancient Tomb

4 Rishadan Port

4 Wasteland

Total: 20

Creatures

4 Barbed Brawlers

4 Veteran Brawlers

4 Flametongue Kavu

2 Goblin Sharpshooter

1 Varchild’s War-Riders

Total: 15

Spells

3 Mana Web

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

2 Fireblast

2 Fire // Ice

4 Mox Diamond

4 Pillage

3 Ruination

3 Ensnaring Bridge

Total: 28

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Red Elemental Blast

1 Pyroblast

2 Pyroclasm

1 Pyrokinesis

4 Defense Grid

1 Mana Web

UG Flying Weenies

Today, we look to the past for some inspiration on deck building. This is actually one of the earlier decks that I know about, as it became a ‘legitimate’ contender with the game’s first expansion, Arabian Nights. While not quite as famous as its brother in another colour, that doesn’t mean it’s not as dangerous. So let’s dive right in and see what we can learn about UG Flying Weenies.

If you could have one super power, what would it be? Personally, I’d probably choose teleportation; and yet I actually think the most popular answer would likely be flying. Why do I mention this? Well, that means that the average person would be pretty envious of every creature in today’s deck. The reason for this is quite simple: today we are employing cheap threats that can fly their way to victory. So which ones do we choose to include? That’s where things get interesting. Note: I do want to mention that Scryb Sprites and Flying Men should be in every deck, as they are simple, elegant and exactly what we want.

The other 1-drop flying dudes aren’t as streamlined, which is where it comes down to your play-style, meta, et cetera. I decided on Xantid Swarm because they can clear the way to a safe Berserk-style win. This is pretty handy, despite the obvious scratch against them being that they do not deal damage on their own (Birds of Paradise being another great example). Of course, you can also go for other 1/1 flyers such as Cloud Pirate, which is U instead of G – colour balance being another factor to consider in your deck construction decision(s). Whew, who would’ve thought tiny flying dudes could complicate things to such an extent, am I right?

Alright, enough about creatures! What else can we do with our strategy? Giant Growth is a surprisingly good Swiss army knife-type of card. What I mean by this is that it has a deceptive number of uses, both in attack and defense. The obvious uses are that it can make you hit the opponent harder and defend a bigger creature without yours dying. Simple, right? Sure, but let’s look at some other uses/factors. It can save a creature from direct damage (creature protection), ambush an attacking/blocking opponent (creature removal) or make your opponent not block because of a potential Growth (unblockable). And those were just off the top of my head – the point is the card has some versatility to it. In short: great card.

In a deck that wants to hit your opponent with fast damage, it might surprise people not to include Red. There are certainly pros to playing the colour, and yet there are also pros to not doing so. With its emphasis on growing small creatures for damage, you gain some long-game options that aren’t available via direct damage. The addition of Red also weakens the mana base when it’s not even necessary. Why? Because an awesome thing about UG Weenies is that you CAN include direct damage. I put in 4x Psionic Blast because they are a great addition as creature removal and/or to win the game.

Should I Brainstorm? Admittedly, Brainstorm wasn’t originally included in Weenies. The reason was because I wanted to concentrate on quick and efficient opening hands, and Brainstorm can slow down your tempo. Eventually, I decided to add it however, as I felt that old lightning head can help you find the last couple points of damage and smooth out your draws if you hit some land. I didn’t really test out which version was correct; I think that choice depends on your play-style. Happy Brewing!

UG Flying Weenies

Land

1 Island

1 Pendelhaven

4 Tropical Island

4 Wasteland

7 Fetch lands

Total: 17

Creatures

4 Scryb Sprites

4 Flying Men

4 Xantid Swarm

1 Serendib Efreet

Total: 13

Spells

4 Berserk

4 Rancor

3 Giant Growth

4 Unstable Mutation

4 Force of Will

4 Daze

4 Psionic Blast

3 Concordant Crossroads

Total: 30

Sideboard

4 Naturalize

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Counterspell

1 Giant Growth

1 Regrowth

1 Ground Seal

Pandeburst

Today we are learning about a deck that I knew very little about prior to writing this article. Apparently, it was actually a pretty popular deck back in the semi-old days; I just wasn’t aware of it because I had stopped playing the game by the time it existed. I find the way it works to be quite fascinating however, and decided to look into its history a bit to see what I could design within the Ancient rules. So let’s remember that we should a) always be nice to pandas, and b) read on about something entirely unrelated to them: Pandeburst.

To begin, let’s first take a look at the namesake cards of the deck to better understand how it works. Pande- comes from Pandemonium, a card we’ve actually talked about in a different deck some time ago. The second half, -burst, comes from Saproling Burst, another relatively obscure card by the average player nowadays. The name is rather fitting, as the two combine to form a winning combo when they’re both in play. So how does it work? Essentially – with Pandemonium on the board, Saproling Burst becomes a pinger-type outlet via its tokens. The first token being a 7/7, then a 6/6, then a 5/5, then a 4/4.. you get the idea. Sacrifice these to Pandemonium, send some direct damage to your opponent, and ta-da – you win the game.

The rest of the cards act as your standard combo-type of deck; the main ones are used to assemble the combo pieces so you can win the game. Brainstorm is an obvious inclusion, but you might be wondering about Intuition and Careful Study. The reason we use these are actually because the win con can often be a combo within a combo. What do I mean by that? Well to start, the latter 2 cards are used to collect your win pieces – whether that means putting them into your hand or into your graveyard. That’s where the second combo sort of comes into play – how do we win if our card is in the ‘yard? The answer is.. in the next paragraph. DUN DUN DUN.

Alrighty, as promised – the answer to our obvious riddle. What’s the best way to get enchantments from the graveyard into play? Replenish of course! In fact, I would argue that this is the real combo to the deck, as it lets you circumvent the casting costs of your win conditions. Not only does this mean getting a combined 9 CMC out for the cost of a Replenish, but it also means that both cards hit the board at the same time – avoiding the awkwardness of one being destroyed or countered while the other is in play.

One thing that stands out to me is that the deck contains 4 colours. This is normally something that I avoid doing, as I find it to be very easy for an opponent to ruin your mana base. The reason I am fine with it here is because there is no spell, aside from the two creatures, that requires 2+ of a colour to be cast. In fact, the deck can technically be played without the G or R mana base – I just chose to add the Island duals because I prefer being able to cast any card in the deck. This is not a rule that you need to abide by, simply a preference of mine when it comes to deck construction. In other words, build the deck based on your play style. Happy Brewing!

Pandeburst

Land

4 Tundra

2 Volcanic Island

2 Tropical Island

4 Island

1 Plains

4 Ancient Tomb

7 Fetch lands

Total: 24

Creatures

2 Gigapede

Total: 2

Spells

4 Pandemonium

4 Saproling Burst

4 Replenish

4 Brainstorm

1 Sleight of Hand

1 Opt

4 Intuition

4 Careful Study

4 Force of Will

4 Swords to Plowshares

Total: 34

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Disenchant

2 City of Solitude

2 Meekstone

1 Aegis of Honor

2 Circle of Protection: Red

We R gone aggro

A sweet aggro deck can be compared to a good date on a Friday night – fast, cheap and easy to get into! Today`s list combines two of the `easier’ decks to pilot, White Weenie and Red Deck Wins; drawing from the strengths of each and forming a formidable deck in its own right. Intrigued? Then come on pardners, grab your saddles and giddy up, ‘cause today We R gone aggro!

So the name of the game for any good aggro build is speed. That means when it comes to creatures, unless they have Haste, we don’t  want them to cost anything higher than 1. Savannah Lions and Jackal Pup are our go-to 1-drops here. Remember when 2 power for 1 mana was worthy of being Rare? The Grim Lavamancers are also included because they can help clear the way for your creatures and/or get in some damage of their own. Icatian Javelineers might seem like a strange choice, but I wanted to include a direct damage creature like Lavamancer that wouldn’t compete with its cards in the graveyard.

The tricky part about building an aggro deck with Red is to not just make a subpar RDW. What can White add to the deck that warrants including it instead of being a mono colour deck? In order to prove White’s worth, I recommend taking a look at the sideboard. Swords to Plowshares is the best creature removal option in the game, and I included 3 copies in the SB to take care of the big creatures you don’t want to spend 2+ burn spells to take out. White also offers Disenchant, which can be crucial against cards such as CoP: Red and Ivory Mask. Another possible addition would be Abeyance against combo decks, but I chose to focus on hating out other types of decks.

One of the strengths of today’s deck stems from its balance between creatures and spells. Generally, you want to begin by dealing fast damage with your creatures, slashing away at your opponent’s life total before direct damage wins you the game. Red just happens to be the best colour in Magic at hitting the opponent and/or their creatures, which we can certainly use to our advantage. While the deck contains your standard 8x Lightning package, it also includes some less prevalent zappers. Kindle is an oldie, but it can pack some serious punch. Scent of Cinder is a new one to me, but I thought it had some sweet potential, as the majority of your spells are Red.

Another Red spell that deserves some attention is Fork. Honestly, this is an amazing card. Not only can it double the damage of your spells, but you can use an opponent’s removal against them, counter their spell, pump your own creature.. I am seriously just scratching the surface of the card’s versatility. I didn’t include 4 because it CAN be a dead card in your hand, however I think 1-3 copies are a great addition to the deck.

Despite my speech on only including 1 CMC creatures unless they are Hasty, there were a couple of 2 cost dudes that I had actually considered. White Knight and Silver Knight are both great against Black and Red respectively, but ultimately I didn’t think they were fast enough. The main 2-drop that I wanted to include was Goblin Legionnaire. The card seems pretty innocuous at first glance, but it can lead to some pretty interesting in-game decisions for you and your opponent. Why? Among other uses, it’s a 2-power creature that can act as direct damage, a “4 power” blocker or attacker and an anti-burn card. I felt that this was probably more mid-range in use, but you can probably fit it into the deck nicely. Happy Brewing!

We R gone aggro

Land

4 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Plateau
4 Mishra’s Factory
7 Fetch lands

Total: 20

Creatures

4 Savannah Lions
4 Jackal Pup

3 Grim Lavamancer

4 Icatian Javelineers

2 Viashino Sandscout

Total: 17

Spells

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

1 Fireblast

3 Overmaster

2 Fork

1 Flame Rift

1 Final Fortune

4 Kindle
3 Scent of Cinder

Total: 23

Sideboard

3 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Swords to Plowshares

1 Red Elemental Blast

1 Pyroblast

1 Pyroclasm

4 Blood Moon

2 Disenchant