Sylvan Lavamancer

Despite being March as I write this, we’ve had 2 snowy days here. I thought it might be nice to write about a deck that celebrates keeping people nice and warm. And what deck concentrates on heating the people around it? Why a nice burn deck, obviously! But I didn’t want to just review the traditional RDW and make a tweak or two, I wanted to break the mould a bit and try something else. A deck that doesn’t just sizzle and burn out, but rather one that gives a nice slow burn. Today, we are going to look at Sylvan Lavamancer.

As previously mentioned, Burn decks tend to share a common weakness in that they can lose steam prior to zapping the opponent to 0. And because red isn’t really known to generate card advantage, it means you have to seek other means to do so. In comes today’s heart throb - you know him, you love him – your pal, Grim Lavamancer. The brother Grim is a great example when it comes to alternate means to card advantage. He can single-handedly take out an opponent’s creatures and/or their hit points. Talk about sweet!

The other namesake in today’s deck would be Olle Råde, also known as Sylvan Messenger. While it may seem as though his only role is to protect Lavaman, that is not entirely true. He actually works quite well in tandem with him as his protection also means providing the means to deal 2 damage to a creature or player. He doesn’t even need to tap do this, so he can also swing in the occasional damage or two.

At a glance, the spells section might seem like your typical Burn deck. While that may very well be the case, I do not think so, as it omits some serious considerations and replaces them with less obvious/traditional choices. One such example would be that the deck does not play Kindle, a pretty sweet burn spell that only improves as the game gets played. However, as with other choices in Sylvan Lavamancer, but they do not work well with our heroes, which we want as our main game plan and game winner.

You don’t normally see Wasteland in a burn deck, but I thought it was worth including due to Lavamancer. Wastelands not only add ammunition to our lava slinging pal, but with him in play we are also choosing a slight control aspect, rather than pure speed. Wasteland is a great card at slowing down, and even ruining, an opponent’s game plan, so it only makes sense to combine it with our red-cowled hero.

The other control aspect to our deck should be pretty obvious: Blood Moon. I had actually considered Raze to help control the opponent as they get burned, but decided on 4 Moon instead as it’s more consistent and not a 2-1 that works against you in card advantage. It also does not screw Sylvan Messenger, which should be a consideration as well. Remember, lands are not just mana in this deck, they also help you attack the opponent and protect your creatures.

The last thing I want to mention is that the deck also contains 2 cards that replace your hand – 1 Winds of Change and 1 Browbeat. With cards such as Price of Progress and Scent of Cinder in the deck, their value can either be great or garbage, depending on the situation. With this in mind, both cards allow you to change your grip, particularly Winds which works wonders with Lavamancer.

You probably noticed that many cards in Sylvan Lavamancer look to work with either Sylvan Messenger and/or Grim Lavamancer, the 2 namesake cards in the deck. It should be noted however, that each card is also simply good on its own; and generally has good synergy with each other and the game plan in general. You may not think the combination and/or support cards to be worth their place however, so be sure to choose a version that is right to you. Happy Brewing!

 

Sylvan Lavamancer

Land

1 Pendelhaven

4 Taiga

5 Mountain

5 Fetch lands

2 Barbarian Ring

4 Wasteland

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Sylvan Safekeeper

4 Grim Lavamancer

4 Mogg Fanatic

Total: 12

Spells

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

1 Incinerate

2 Scent of Cinder

2 Fireblast

1 Browbeat

2 Shock or Assault // Battery

2 Price of Progress

1 Winds of Change

4 Overmaster

4 Blood Moon

Total: 27

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Hydroblast

2 Naturalize

2 Hull Breach

2 Pyroclasm

1 Cursed Scroll

UW Standlands

Today we’re going to be looking at a pretty old and pretty awesome deck. I actually wrote about the UR version a couple years ago, but never revisited it to check out the UW one, despite it being a popular choice back then as well. Today I thought we should change that. To be honest, I barely made any changes to the oldest Legacy versions, as they were pretty darn playable as they were, and thought I’d keep it that way. Besides, you can make any changes you want as well. So with that, let’s take a look at UW Standlands.

As one can tell, due to Standstill being a build-around card, it plays a key role in any deck that uses it. As such, you want to get it in play both when you can and when it is to your own advantage. The card is pretty unique in that it allows you or the opponent to use it, thus making both players work around it. Now obviously, with your deck built around it, then it should be you who does so. That means drawing your win conditions, as well as additional control pieces, to stomp your opponent and take the match.

Because card advantage is so key in maintaining answers, you should consider other means to draw as well. A pretty standard piece to see in the meta game back in the day was Fact or Fiction, which allowed you to choose such answers. Now to those who might not know about this card, it is an awesome spell to cast and provides both you and your opponent with some decisions to dwell on. The good news is that generally, the hard calls are on your opponents’ shoulders since you have a pretty good idea what you want to do.

While the deck’s namesake enchantment is indeed awesome, it does make library construction a bit tricky. How do you get around casting your own spells once it hits the board? You could try Mercadian Lift or Quicksilver Amulet, but they seem a bit slow and should not be played once The Stand is sitting there. Manlands are the better way to go, as they provide mana and can be played/used whenever you want. This is not true with spells, as Standstill can be triggered by either player, allowing the other to draw their cards. We don’t want that! I also included 2 Jade Statue because they can avoid Humility and Wrath while providing some blocking power, but that is entirely optional on your part.

So we’ve looked at card drawing as an advantage, but let’s look at versatility. Wasteland serves several purposes in Standlands, which is why it is important you include a play set. Not only can it help control the opponent via mana denial, but it can also destroy opposing Wastelands that might target your manlands and/or destroy your opponents’. Versatility is always welcome in a control deck, as it means you never have a dead card in your deck, no matter the opponent’s strategy.

Lastly, let’s talk about why Daze? Despite this deck clearly wanting to go the long game, there are 4 Daze to help get there. Not only does it stop the opponents’ early attackers landing on the board prior to your own cards but it can also help keep combo pieces in check. With the card advantage and selection provided in the deck, later copies are easy to replace. Naturally, these are meta game and player choice calls, so do what you believe to be right. Happy Brewing!

UW Standlands

Land

4 Island

1 Plains

4 Tundra

4 Faerie Conclave

4 Mishra’s Factory

4 Flooded Strand

4 Wasteland

Total: 25

Creatures

Total: 0

Spells

4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Counterspell

2 Humility

2 Disenchant

1 Fact or Fiction

2 Decree of Justice

2 Wrath of God

4 Daze

2 Jade Statue

Total: 35

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Stifle

1 Nevinyrral’s Disk

2 Disenchant

BR Zombies ate my Neighbours

Are you smart? I know I am! But how did we get so smart? Being born smart is always a possibility, as is training your mind. Are you an avid reader and have acquired your knowledge through literature? Or maybe you enjoy eating brains and gaining your victims’ knowledge? Should you believe in the latter, then you are going to love today’s deck! Today we are looking at BR Zombies ate my Neighbours.

Traditional zombie decks tend to go mono Black - and with good reason. The creatures tend to be B, which makes playing your cards easier (and you don’t lose the game to a Blood Moon). So why add Red? You better have a pretty good reason. Originally I had considered Pyre Zombie to be that reason, however the mana base I wanted to use didn’t really allow that. I decided to stay with Red however because it allows some versatility via Lightning Bolt and some decent sideboard options.  Should you decide to stay the traditional mono black route however, there are certainly other options.

How do you play? The idea is to win via card advantage, both by attacking the opponent’s hand (aka Hymn to Tourach) and by gaining creature/card advantage. You achieve the latter by using both card draw and the graveyard to your advantage. There are numerous ways to achieve either so I want to point out the important, possibly obscure and even less obvious ones.

Let’s start with the most obvious – the card drawers. Grave Defiler is a card I hadn’t really seen prior, but assumed it existed due to its well-known Elvish and Goblin counterparts. Gempalm Polluter is another card that should be known, as the Gempalm cycling cards are also well-known. Both cards allow you to draw, thus providing you with card advantage. Lastly, I want to talk about Balthor, which to my knowledge, is a card I was not aware existed. He is amazing at getting your [un]dead creatures back into play, and combos nicely with Phyrexian Tower should you need the latter to pay his casting cost.

The zombie lords. Today’s deck has 7 lords at your disposal, and each one provides a pretty awesome addition to its +X/+X shenanigans. Yes, you read that correctly as 2 give your dudes +2/+1. Sweet, right? The others either let you regenerate your undead horde or bring them back to your hand via beyond the grave (actually, via the grave).

Some choices in today’s deck might seem strange, but each one has a reason that I put it there. As with any good tribal deck, synergy and play style are the key to victory. How you choose to play with zombies is down to you. Happy Brewing!

BR Zombies ate my Neighbours

Land

4 Badlands
4 Swamp

4 Fetch lands

4 Wasteland
3 Lake of the Dead

1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volrath’s Stronghold

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Carnophage

4 Zombie Master

1 Lord of the Undead

4 Grave Defiler

4 Ghastly Remains

4 Carrion Feeder

1 Festering Goblin

2 Undead Warchief

1 Gempalm Polluter

1 Balthor the Defiled

1 Entrails Feaster

Total: 27

Spells

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Ritual

Total: 12

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Terminate

1 Pyroclasm

4 Duress

1 Gate to Phyrexia

1 Shivan Zombie

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