WG Auratog

Ah yes, another article on casual decks. How ironic that it rhymes with another thing people love, eh? Today`s casual deck resulted from some glorious ‘accidental inspiration’. I sort of stumbled upon the idea as I was browsing old cards, reading about their interactions and going from there. I think doing this can be really beneficial to brewers - not just for casual players. When you browse old cards, you discover new ones, thereby creating a catalogue of information. Seeing a card can in turn flash you back to another/others, inspiring a deck premise to build upon. But enough about the process(es) of deck building, let’s jump right into today’s deck: WG Auratog!

One of my favourite aspects of Magic the Gathering is the collecting. I really enjoy finding old rares and trying to figure out how and/or why the designers deemed the card to warrant its rarity. Take today’s deck for example; which started with only 1 card – Femeref Enchantress. This is a card that has been on my radar for some time. Why? Because it obviously has some potential applications, as it is an engine for enchantment-type card advantage. The question then becomes how. How do I abuse this to win games?

Femeref Enchantress is pretty unique in that it requires enchantments to go to the graveyard from play. This means that you then require another ‘engine’ to do so; the more efficient the better.  Enter Auratog. In the right deck, the ‘tog is amazing. It’s an engine and a win condition in one! Of course, Rancor certainly helps.. Being a creature without evasion does make it somewhat vulnerable however, which is why the deck contains the little-known Avoid Fate. I chose Avoid Fate instead of an enchantment because it has the advantage of surprise, and can protect any of your permanents, not just your creatures.

This is not a speedy deck that wins right away; it requires time to build a substantial enchantment-y board presence before going in for the win with Auratog. While that certainly does not make this a control deck, it does mean that slowing down the game becomes a factor. 4 copies of Elephant Grass and 4x Swords to Plowshares are in the deck to help ensure this happens. It is also important to remember that when you no longer want to pay for Elephant Grass, you can sac it to Auratog instead.

I chose not to include Steely Resolve, but it was removed late into the deck construction. The reason was because the deck needed some trimming, and the Shroud could potentially work against the deck. Auratog could sac Resolve when need be, but that would mean losing one of its sources of protection. In the end, it just didn’t seem worth the slot(s) in the deck. Perhaps you feel differently though. I encourage you to try it out and see what you prefer. Happy Brewing!

WG Auratog

Land

4 Savannah

4 Forest

1 Plains

4 Windswept Heaths

3 Fetch lands

4 Wasteland

Total: 20

Creatures

4 Auratog

4 Femeref Enchantress

4 Argothian Enchantress

Total: 12

Spells

4 Rancor

4 Wild Growth

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Elephant Grass

4 Avoid Fate

3 Mirri’s Guile

3 Gaea’s Touch

1 Nature’s Chosen

1 Replenish

Total: 28

Sideboard

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Naturalize

1 Disenchant

1 Moat

2 Aegis of Honor

Kjeldoran Control

Remember the days when playing a land didn’t involve searching your library? Admittedly, despite the inclusion of fetch lands in the format, I actually find them to be an annoying part of Magic. Today’s deck has sort of an old school vibe as it doesn’t use fetch lands to access mana. It also contains some very sweet old cards to control the game and win. So what are we going to be reading about today? I present to thee: Kjeldoran Control.

Alright then, where to start.. originally, the deck was going to contain WU instead of being Mono White. The reason it changed to just W was due to the addition of Planar Birth. The card is just amazing, as it completely negates the drawback of Kjeldoran Outpost. As an added bonus, it (along with Mox Diamond) can be pretty strong against Ehrnamgeddon and other Land Destruction-type decks as well.

Mox Diamond is the card that keeps on giving. Not only does it work nicely with Planar Birth, but a T1 Diamond and Tithe can be amazing. With the sheer number of lands in the deck, 4 Mox Diamond was an easy inclusion. They can also really help if you’re on the draw, as a T1 Mox Diamond into Tithe can help you gain some card advantage in the form of those glorious Plains’, while thinning out your deck.

Horn of Greed seems good here, so why only play one? The truth is, you can include multiple copies of Horn if you want. I actually prefer seeing it in the late game, when the opponent has no more lands to play but you do thanks to the high land count of the deck. Horn also doesn’t benefit from Planar Birth, so a singleton copy makes more sense. It does work great with Petrified Field though for some sweet card drawing action.

The win conditions in the deck are pretty light, and should make any old control player proud. Kjeldoran Outpost is a pretty obscure card these days, but it used to be pretty sought after. With the printing of Wasteland, the card’s drawback of sacrificing a land meant that you could easily get 2 for 1’d and take a serious tempo hit at the same time. This is why the deck contains playsets of both Birth and Field, to ensure you keep your main win conditions on the battlefield.

Part 2 of why Kjeldoran Outpost is amazing: it doubles as control. Everyone knows that Wrath of God is a great board wipe, but its not perfect. The fact is, it’s a 1-shot spell that can be (somewhat) played around. Outpost helps negate this by being a continuous source of chump blockers. Combined with Humility, it also means you destroy their creatures with those blocks; allowing you to rebuild your army of 1/1s at your own convenience.

The deck has a number of interactions between its cards, against various strategies, et cetera. As always, I encourage everyone to pick up the deck and discover just what Kjeldoran Control can do. There are several variations and possibilities to be explored, which is part of what makes MtG so enjoyable. Good luck and Happy Brewing!

Kjeldoran Control

Land

13 Plains

4 Kjeldoran Outpost

4 Wasteland

4 Petrified Field

4 Mishra’s Factory

3 Maze of Ith

4 Rishadan Port

Total: 32

Creatures

4 Mother of Runes

Total: 4

Spells

4 Planar Birth

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Wrath of God

1 Humility

1 Decree of Justice

4 Tithe

4 Mox Diamond

1 Horn of Greed

1 Worship

Total: 24

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Disenchant

3 Circle of Protection Red

Dump Truck

Today we are going to be focusing on decisions. As you are no doubt aware, games of Magic the Gathering are essentially games of decisions. Why and when you play what are how games are played. Not only that, but the decision of how a deck was made, or even why you decided to play it, are also factors. Today I am going to be talking about the former – why were some cards included while others were not. Oh, and why did I choose today’s deck? I actually have an extensive list of decks and deck ideas already written down. I just took a quick look at them and chose this one. Alright, let’s get started. Oh right, we’re talking about Dump Truck.

Playing a control deck like Dump Truck comes down to making choices, both in game and before it even starts. I know this is true of any deck/game of Magic, but I want to elaborate a bit on what I mean. I am going to introduce a Card vs. Card choice at the beginning of each paragraph, and then explain to you why I decided on each. Play along and see if you think it was the right choice, or if there was perhaps a card I had missed that might work better.

Wrath of God vs. Engineered Plague. The original decks that I read about played Wrath of God. I wasn’t really a fan of these, as the deck contains so few creatures and they are our only win conditions. Engineered Plague seemed like a great alternative as it wipes out weenie decks that try to overwhelm you early on. Engineered also costs 1 mana less to cast, which can be crucial against an aggro deck such as White Weenie.

Cabal Therapy vs. Hymn to Tourach. Now this was a hard choice to make. Hymn to Tourach does exactly what this deck wants to do – it can seriously disrupt their game plan while providing you with legitimate card advantage. Cabal Therapy can do this too, but is often used in pretty creature heavy decks to maximize its use. Along with being a possible turn 1 play, the results of my next decision also played a part in this one..

Mox Diamond vs. Land. This is more of a control deck than a tempo deck. Because of this, I didn’t find the inclusion of Mox Diamond to be necessary. Having access to more mana early on certainly has its uses in a control deck however, and it is definitely something to you may want to consider. What type of control deck you choose to play should ultimately decide on whether or not to include Diamond in your deck.

Mana denial vs. Not. Speaking of mana.. while not a card vs. card decision, another aspect I had to consider was whether or not to hit their mana sources. With Vindicate already in the deck, it might seem like an obvious choice. Why not add Wastelands and Stifles to the deck? Well, the main reason(s) I chose not to are the history of the deck and the direction I wanted to take with it. Mana denial control decks are certainly a viable choice, but that would take away from the strengths that Dump Truck decks already employ – their ability to generate card advantage. I decided to stay true to the Truck and not split the focus of the deck.

And there you have it, some of the choices I made in putting together Dump Truck. Despite these decisions however, there were other cards that I had thought about that I just didn’t find a place for. Cards such as Mesmeric Fiend, Hypnotic Specter and Gerrard’s Verdict were among these options, but simply didn’t make the cut. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have though, and of course, I encourage you to try it out and decide on your own. Happy Brewing!

Dump Truck

Land

4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea

4 Tundra
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains

Total: 20

Creatures

4 Exalted Angel
4 Meddling Mage
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator

Total: 12

Spells

3 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
4 Vindicate
2 Engineered Plague
4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Brainstorm

Total: 28

Sideboard

1 White Knight

1 Black Knight

1 Silver Knight

2 Engineered Explosives

1 Duress

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Aegis of Honor

Sligh

So here’s the plan – I want you to glance at today’s deck list and tell me; does it look even remotely strong? The answer is probably no. The crazy thing is, that’s essentially the same reaction people had back in the earliest days of Magic. You see, when the deck was introduced to the tournament scene, it looked like a ragtag assortment of cards. When people played against it however, they quickly learned just how fast and consistent it was. And so, as this deck should require no introduction, let’s talk about one of the game’s earliest Red decks – Sligh.

The main concept behind Sligh is pretty simple: get the opponent down to zero using a mix of efficient creatures and spells. Wait, did I just say a mix that includes several creatures in an Ancient mono Red deck? Sure did! In fact, one of the main differences between Sligh and Burn is that Sligh decks tend to be more creature-focused. This is actually pretty ironic when one considers how aggressive the old creatures were vs. the spells. So let’s look into the how and why the Sligh deck works.

While Red is known for its aggressive damage spells, many people forget it also has a pretty sweet creature history as well. Since the days of K̶i̶r̶d̶ ̶A̶p̶e̶ Ball Lightning, mono Red decks have been capable of combining creatures and spells for some serious damage. Another pretty famous example of an aggressive Red creature is Jackal Pup. Seriously. A Savannah Lions with a drawback can be awesome when the drawback rarely matters. I also included another Red 1-drop that may seem pretty obscure to some people – Brand Brawlers. So why did I include it (and as a 4-of!)? The fact is, Sligh decks are meant to out tempo their opponent, which is exactly what a turn 1 Brawlers can do. How? They can either deal some fast damage to the enemy or they can stall the opponent by making them stall on spell-casting.

While the creatures are abundant and sweet, we simply can’t ignore Red’s spells. The usual Lightning spells are included of course, but the deck also contains a couple of Red’s other famous damage dealing spells – Price of Progress and Fireblast. Perhaps most surprising to people however, is the inclusion of the artifact in the room: Cursed Scroll. This thing is an amazing source of control and card advantage. If you’ve never played the Scroll before, then I strongly recommend you do so.

Well everyone, I hope you enjoyed today’s deck. I think it’s important that we.. wait, what? The inclusion of Branded Brawlers continues to haunt you? Well, perhaps it might interest you to know that a couple of the old Sligh decks actually used Branded’s older brother: Veteran Brawlers. I chose to use the little guys instead because of the implications they can bring to turn 1 decision-making however. If you decide to try out both, I do recommend the inclusion of 4 Rishadan Ports and other such changes. But perhaps that’s another deck for another time.. Happy Brewing!

Sligh

Land

7 Mountain

8 Fetch lands

4 Wasteland

1 Rishadan Port

Total: 20

Creatures

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Jackal Pup

4 Ball Lightning

3 Grim Lavamancer

4 Viashino Sandstalker

4 Branded Brawlers

Total: 23

Spells

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

3 Cursed Scroll

3 Fireblast

2 Price of Progress

1 Shock

Total: 17

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Pyroblast

2 Red Elemental Blast

3 Pyroclasm

1 Ironclaw Orcs

3 Bottle Gnomes

RUG Threshold Revisited

Today we are going to be doing something that I have wanted to for some time now. The first deck I ever wrote about on this site is RUG Threshold. As you may have noticed, the ‘article’ on it was short and lacked polish. I think we can all agree that there is room for improvement, which is what today’s post looks to do. Not only is this an improved version of the deck for today’s metagame, but the article is also going to go into more detail on the cards and general strategy of the deck. So with that, let’s revisit RUG Threshold.

The main strength of RUG Threshold is its ability to play an early threat and then stall the opponent long enough to win the game. The deck does this in a variety of ways, which is what makes it so strong. Versatility means that you can adapt to your opponent’s game plan while you continue to employ your own. The act of doing so is known as Tempo, and RUG Threshold is the poster child of the strategy. So how does it do these things?

Threats. One of the most important things you can do with the deck involves dropping a threat early on. Ideally, this is done on the first turn, so a good number of your creatures should therefore be 1-drops. In this case, RUG’s T1 beaters are Kird Ape and Nimble Mongoose. The deployment of fast threats is important not only to put pressure on your opponent, but also because it means you can use the rest of your mana to stall your opponent while maintaining that pressure.

Control. While being labeled as a Tempo deck, that usually means that you are also a Control deck. As previously mentioned, RUG Threshold has a variety of ways to do so at its disposal. The deck contains counter magic to stop your opponent’s spells from resolving, while its package of Lightning and Fire // Ice helps take care of any creatures they might be able to land. The deck also contains forms of mana denial such as Wasteland and Stifle, which can be crucial in stopping your opponent from casting their spells.

Threshold. The namesake of the deck, the Threshold mechanic plays an important role in many of your strongest creatures. Both Nimble Mongoose and Werebear require you to hit Threshold, which is why I included 4 Mental Note. Think of it as a cantrip that reads ‘add 3/7 to your Threshold’. The card also works very well with Brainstorm. No fetch lands? No problem!

So that’s that, RUG Threshold 2.0. I hope you enjoyed revisiting the deck, as I found it intersting to compare and contrast the two versions. While this is not something I plan on doing that often, I can certainly see myself revisiting other early articles in the future. And as always, just as I have revised RUG Threshold. I encourage you all to tinker and do the same. Happy Brewing!

RUG Threshold Revisited

Land:

4 Volcanic Island

4 Tropical Island

4 Wasteland

7 Fetch lands

Total: 19

Creatures:

4 Kird Ape

4 Nimble Mongoose

4 Werebear

1 Serendib Efreet

Total: 13

Spells:

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Force of Will

4 Daze

4 Stifle

4 Brainstorm

3 Fire // Ice

1 Chain Lightning

4 Mental Note

Total: 28

Sideboard:

2 Grim Lavamancer

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Misdirection

2 Pyroblast

1 Red Elemental Blast

2 Chain of Vapors

3 Counterspell

BG Land Destruction

Today’s deck has been a work-in-progress for quite some time. This might seem strange at first, as the theme and general strategy of it are pretty straightforward; so why was it so hard to create? If you believe that restrictions breed creativity to be true, then the opposite of that must also have some truth to it, no? The fact is, there are a lot of cards that do what this deck wants. So what is that? Simple - today we are going to be looking at Land Destruction.

The main difficulty of today’s deck was deciding which colour(s) to play. There are good cards in several of them, so deciding on what to include can becomee somewhat difficult. Because of this, I am going to break down my thoughts on each colour, and why or why not I have decided to include them in the deck.

White. When most people think of land destruction, they think of the original bad boy - Armageddon. I decided not to play this colour because this version does not employ the same strategy as a deck such as Ehrnamgeddon. How? We want to stop them from having access to their mana, while retaining access to our own. While the addition of green would somewhat mitigate this, I decided to simply go another route instead.

Blue. Nope.

Black. Speaking of iconic land destruction in a colour; Black has (arguably) the best one in Sinkhole. Because of its colour intensive mana cost however, this might not seem like an attractive option unless you go pretty heavily into Black. What else could that mean? Well, Encroach is not technically a land destruction spell, but it is certainly good at depleting the opponent’s early access to their lands. Hymn to Tourach is another great option that can also hit other things. A T1 Dark Ritual followed by a Sinkhole/Hymn and an Encroach can outright win you the game. Ok, we’re going to include Black.

Red. When most people think of Red’s land destruction, they think of Stone Rain. The fact is, Red actually has several cards that are capable of this effect. I am not going to go into this colour more because I might write about it in another land destruction-themed deck in the future. It is probably correct to play this as your second colour along with Black, but I didn’t this time.

Green. Considering it’s the colour of mana creation/ramp, it is shocking just how good green is at destroying land as well. Ice Storm is a great example of this, but so is Winter’s Grasp. Because many spells in the deck contain either BB or GG, I decided to include some copies of Birds of Paradise to help smooth out the mana. Along with mana fixing, Birds is also good at allowing turn 2 Ice Storm/Grasp or other 3-cost spells, including the main win condition – Terravore. Green is in.

Colourless. I think the inclusion of the colourless cards is pretty self-explanatory here. Dingus Egg acts as another win condition, and Mox Diamond is great for ramp in a deck that contains a high number of lands. Speaking of which, the lands which generate non-coloured mana also act as great sources of land destruction too. Awesome.

I had considered Ankh of Mishra in the deck, as it seems like another obvious inclusion. This is not a tempo deck however, and the effect is symmetrical. Combine that with any sort of direct damage or fast creatures that the opponent might cast, and we could be at 0 before the opponent. I do think there is a place for the card in some type of build however, and I encourage you all to find it. Happy Brewing!

BG Land Destruction

Land

4 Bayou

4 Swamp

1 Forest

3 Dustbowl

4 Wasteland

1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

7 Fetch lands

Total: 24

Creatures

3 Birds of Paradise

4 Terravore

Total: 7

Spells

1 Dingus Egg

4 Dark Ritual

4 Mox Diamond

4 Sinkhole

4 Innocent Blood

4 Ice Storm

4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Winter’s Grasp

Total: 28

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Duress

1 Naturalize

3 Desert Twister

3 Infest

Sneaky Cauldron

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Amongst the most famous lines in English literature, did you know that the meaning behind them was actually a shout out to today’s deck? I didn’t think so! The inspiration behind the name lies in one of its key cards; can you guess which one? Here’s a hint: Sneaky Cauldron.

Despite that strange introduction, Sneaky Cauldron’s main source of damage is not the card I was referring to, but rather it is Sneak Attack. This is because it is easy to cast and becomes a recursive source of getting creatures into play for cheap. How is it recursive? In conjunction with numerous creatures, Karakas and Cauldron Dance, you are able to re-use Sneak Attack to hit your opponent down to 0. I assume you are now going to look at what the heck Cauldron Dance does. Allow me to save you the trouble in the next paragraph.

Cauldron Dance. I had never seen this card before doing some research for today’s deck. In short: it allows you to “Sneak Attack” a creature from your hand and/or graveyard, before placing it in your graveyard and/or hand. Lost? Ok ok, go ahead and search the card. While it is a bit costly to cast, this is mitigated via the Sol lands. Dance also works great after you’ve already used Sneak Attack, provided you don’t have a Karakas in play to return the creature to your hand.

I put in Quicksilver Amulet as a 1-of because it can get around the reliance on coloured mana and works very nicely with the Sol lands. The deck also contains 4 copies of Akroma, Angel of Wrath, whose Haste can make Amulet a conditionally better version of Sneak Attack. Despite including it however, I had considered dropping the card completely as 9 Sneak effects might be too many. I certainly recommend you try the deck with and without the card, so as to make an informed decision on your own.

Winds of Change. This is a bit of an obscure card, but I think it is one of those underused gems. Yes, it gives you card disadvantage, but it has so many uses that make it great. For example, it can help replace the unneeded cards in your hand with ones you can use. Not only that, but Winds can also be a sort of hand disruption as well. How? Ever wanted to screw over a Storm player who has spent their time sculpting a hand? This is a very neat card that I recommend you try out.

Amongst the main cards considered for the deck that didn’t make the cut was Shifty Doppelganger. The card offers a lot of potential and perhaps deserves further consideration, but I chose not to include it due to its lack of synergy with both Cauldron Dance and Karakas. I think it could be quite strong however, maybe even stronger than the current build, and I encourage everyone to try tinkering with the deck to suit their playstyle. Happy Brewing!

Sneaky Cauldron

Land

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

4 Badlands

4 Karakas

4 Ancient Tomb

3 City of Traitors

7 Fetch lands

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Nicol Bolas

4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Total: 8

Spells

4 Sneak Attack

4 Cauldron Dance

1 Quicksilver Amulet

4 Lotus Petal

4 Duress

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Winds of Change

1 Chain Lightning

1 Smother

1 Enlightened Tutor

Total: 28

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Red Elemental Blast

1 Pyroblast

1 Symbiotic Wurm

1 Wasteland

3 Swords to Plowshares

1 Disenchant

2 Pyroclasm