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

Brown Snow

One of the things I try to do with these introductions is grab your attention. Without the use of cat videos however, I know how hard it can be sometimes; as such, I try to include interesting facts, real world references, et cetera to get you reading. Today I decided to go with immaturity. I could’ve named the deck something more PG such as Iced Coffee or Mocha Latte. But nah, instead I went with Brown Snow.  Enjoy.

Despite containing White, the deck employs several elements of your average MUD deck, such as the use of artifacts to tax your opponent. It does so by increasing the cost of casting spells and destroying the opponent’s mana base. While this strategy can be effective, particularly if you’re on the play, it can also limit your own ability to develop your board. Not only that, but artifacts aren’t particularly strong in the interaction department, and so the idea is to limit your opponent’s ability to interact as well, thus giving you an edge on the competition.

So how does it work?  While it employs the trifecta of attacking their manabase, generating mana, and limiting the opponent’s ability to interact with you; it’s actually the last point that defines this deck. The addition of White allows you to minimize an opponent’s ability to interact with your board, while allowing you to interact with theirs. It does so via Hanna’s Custody - a seriously overlooked card in artifact decks, which singlehandedly protects every non-land permanent that you own (except itself).

Now that we’ve talked about its defense, let’s look at how Brown Snow can win. Your main tool is Chimeric Staff, a lesser known artifact that becomes particularly strong when paired with 1+ Metalworker(s). That being said, you want variety in your win conditions of course, which is why the deck also includes a Phyrexian Processor, a pair of Masticore and 2x Karn, Silver Golem. The problem with Karn is that he becomes pretty useless on his own as a win condition if the opponent has a creature out – good thing we have Masticore and Swords to Plowshares!

The Metalworkers actually serve several purposes in the deck, as they can allow you to maneuver around your Spheres and even play a somewhat tempo role. In fact, Metalworker, along with Grim Monolith, can also be enhanced by Voltaic Key - just remember that Key becomes useless when Custody is in play, so you may not want to include them in your deck.

I put 4 Defense Grid in the sideboard, however there is a valid argument for them to be MB. The idea is that Staff can only be targeted by removal during your turn, thus forcing them to block or take damage by it. Attacking their mana base (and Hanna’s Custody) should be enough to limit the average opponent, but I kept them in the SB for this reason, to hit High Tide/Reset decks, and other various shenanigans. Another card I’d considered was Storage Matrix, which I think can have some really cool board states that I might write about it in another deck. Happy Brewing!

Brown Snow

Land

4 Snow-Covered Plains

4 Ancient Tomb

4 City of Traitors

4 Wasteland

8 Fetch lands

Total: 23

Creatures

4 Metalworker

2 Karn, Silver Golem

2 Masticore

Total: 8

Spells

4 Hanna’s Custody

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Mox Diamond

4 Grim Monolith

3 Voltaic Key

4 Sphere of Resistance

4 Chimeric Staff

1 Phyrexian Processor

1 Icy Manipulator

Total: 29

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Defense Grid

3 Ensnaring Bridge

1 Wrath of God

4 Abeyance