Survival of the Undead

For a long time, I’d been trying to find a home for Ichorid in Ancient. There’s no denying the card’s awesome, but it’s one of those build-around-me types of awesome that require a lot of synergy built around it. Because Ichorid has a fairly unique ability, it took some time figure out a way to get it right. So how did I finally do it? If you must know, I suggest you continue reading about today’s list: Survival of the Undead.

To the surprise of no one, a deck with Ichorid in it must have (at least) some focus on the graveyard. Despite its unique recursion ability, Ichorid is not the only creature that is able to rise from the grave. As such, I focused on finding other creatures that don’t mind being dead (both for offense and to ensure Ichorid can reliably come into play from the ‘yard). With that problem solved, I shifted my attention to the next challenge of the deck: in a game where you normally want to keep your creatures in play, how do you get them into the graveyard in a way that benefits you and not your opponent?

As I seem to be pointing out obviously awesome build-around-me cards today, allow me to talk about another one: Survival of the Fittest. While the first thing the deck needed was a bunch of creatures with graveyard recursion, the next thing was a reliable way to get them there. SotF is perfect for this, as it actually generates a sort of card advantage when combined with the aforementioned creatures. I felt that the deck wanted another option as well however, to help ensure more reliable opening hands. The solution to this problem was to add a Bottomless Pit to the list. Originally there were more than one, but I decided to lower the number of them because you mostly want to cast it once you are both in top deck mode.

Despite not being a land destruction deck, Survival of the Undead does contain several ways to stifle an opponent’s land count and slow them down. Hymn to Tourach, Pox and Wasteland all act as ways you can [potentially] attack an opponent’s mana resources. Two of them even allow you to do so if their mana comes from a creature, such as Birds of Paradise. Doing so not only gives you more time to grow your graveyard, but it also ensures Bottomless Pit remains relevant throughout the game.

I believe the deck to be pretty self-explanatory, but I want to mention a couple of cards I’d considered that didn’t make the cut. The Abyss is an excellent enchantment, but I thought it to be unnecessary with all of the other ways the deck has to deal with creatures. Strongarm Tactics was another consideration (go ahead, google it), but decided against it as it essentially gives you a 1-for-1 exchange at best. Of the two, The Abyss might well be worth it, and I definitely encourage others to try it out and let me know what you think. Happy Brewing!

Survival of the Undead

Land

8 Swamp

1 Forest

4 Fetchlands

4 Bayou

4 Wasteland

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Ichorid

4 Ashen Ghoul

4 Nether Shadow

1 Nether Spirit

2 Mindslicer

4 Krovikan Horror

Total: 19

Spells

4 Survival of the Fittest

1 Bottomless Pit

3 Pox

4 Innocent Blood

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

Total: 20

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Naturalize

4 Pernicious Deed

3 Ostracize

UR Welder

One of the funny things about the Urza Block was the reception of its creatures. Despite introducing several of the games’ strongest 1-drops, they went largely unnoticed because of the OTHER cards in the set. Among those creatures was a little gem called Goblin Welder.  Sure, he could be used to counteract Tinker.. but he could also be used to enable his own combos and win you the game. Today we’re going to explore a deck that does just that! Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce UR Welder.

I’ve never been a fan of decks that rely on a single card to win you the game; they just seem too fragile to me. As a result, I often focus on synergy when creating decks that incorporate such win conditions. If the deck can win without it, then adding in a card that does powerful things is just icing on the cake. A lot of welder decks can be pretty narrow, as they often focus on the Welder combo in order to beat down the opponent. So how do you create a deck with lots of artifacts, that doesn’t focus on being an artifact deck? That’s where it can get tricky.

Focus. The deck has a few areas that it tries to focus on. Getting out big threats is certainly one of them, but finding the right pieces and protecting them once they’re in play are equally important (if not more so). With its emphasis on artifacts, I decided to incorporate the colour most often associated with them – Blue. Intuition and Brainstorm both allow you to find these pieces, with the latter also working with Welder to get your expensive artifacts into the graveyard/play. The 1-of Masticore also helps, as its low CMC means you can get it out and working pretty early on.

The mana base. This was actually harder than you might think. How do you balance a deck that plays 2 colours, while including Sol lands to help power out its many artifacts. The short answer is: thank goodness for fetch lands. The combination of Sol lands into the deck allows many cards to be played early in the game. This isn’t just true when it comes to artifacts either, as Intuition can be played on T2 thanks to Tomb/City. Combine that with a T1 Welder and you’ve got yourself a game. They have the added bonus of allowing your own cards to be played with a Sphere or two in play.

Defense. I decided to add Sphere of Resistance for a few reasons – not only does it provide some defense in the form of slowing down your opponents, but it also acts as a cheap source of artifact-ness for your Welder. Mage’s Guile.. need a second to check that up? I don’t blame you. Believe it or not, it actually came down to a decision between Guile and Mana Leak. I ended up choosing Guile because a) you mostly want either of them to protect your creatures, b) it’s not conditional protection and c) it can be cycled for cheap if you want to dig.

So what are you defending? The creatures of course! Goblin Welder should be your go-to for getting creatures into play, but the deck also contains 4 Metalworkers as well. These 2 creatures allow you to play the very high CMC threats of the deck very early on. I decided to go with some variety in which threats I put into the deck, as Welder + graveyard = toolbox (sort of). If you want more consistency however, then it’s definitely worth taking a look at other options. Happy Brewing!

UR Welder

4 Volcanic Island

1 Mountain

1 Island

7 Fetch lands

4 Ancient Tomb

4 City of Traitors

4 Wasteland

Total: 25

4 Goblin Welder

4 Metalworker

2 Phyrexian Colossus

1 Colossus of Sardia

1 Masticore

2 Triskelion

1 Tetravus

Total: 15

4 Intuition

4 Sphere of Resistance

1 Voltaic Key

2 Smokestack

1 Tangle Wire

4 Brainstorm

4 Mage’s Guile

Total: 20

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Pyroblast

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Chain of Vapor

4 Force of Will

Pandemonium!

Imagine if every creature in your deck was an improved version of Flametongue Kavu. That’d be pretty awesome, right? Since we’re dreaming here, perhaps there are a few things that could improve FTK. If you ask me, the most notable improvements would be a wider range of targets, a cheaper casting cost and/or recursion. Now here’s the really cool part.. you can actually take all of these things into account when designing this deck. I hope you enjoy a bit of chaos in your magic, because we’re about to enter Pandemonium!

To start things off, let’s talk about the namesake linchpin of the deck: Mountain. They’re pretty good lands, which can allow you to cast some sweet spells. In fact, they’re quite important when casting the other key card of the deck: Pandemonium. For 3R, this enchantment enables a creature’s controller to deal damage equal to its power upon entering the battlefield. Sound familiar, FTK? The problem is that both players are able to use this, and thus you must build around the card in order to abuse its potential and gain the advantage over your opponent.

Recursion. This is perhaps the most important aspect of creatures in the deck. Why? Because Pandemonium is dead on its own, so you want creatures you can use again and again in order to overcome the card disadvantage. In fact, almost every creature in the deck returns to your hand for re-use. Viashino Sandstalker and Viashino Sandscout are amazing here, because they offer a high offense at a low mana cost. Imaginary Pet does as well, but it is more of a defensive card that is meant to help buy time. It is good on offense as well however, as it can also be used in conjunction with Pandemonium for some very cheap direct damage.

Power. Remember how I mentioned that almost every creature in the deck has some form of recursion? There is 1 exception, and it is arguably the coolest creature WotC has ever printed: Phyrexian Dreadnought, which is just incredible here. Think about it - that’s [at least] 12 points of damage for 1 (multiple Pandemoniums stack). I also added some Stifles to the package as a sort of alternative win condition, as I didn’t want the Dreadnoughts to be completely dead cards without the enchantment in play.

Considerations. Early on in development, I had initially included Ball Lightning. The card only has a cmc of 3 and is very strong with (or without) Pandemonium in play. In the end however, its RRR mana cost and lack of recursion made me pass on it. I think B. Lightning could have potential however, and would love to see others try it out. Another card I’d considered was Flametongue Kavu, as the amount of value you can get out of him is incredible. I think there are several different avenues for building this deck, and encourage everyone to do some testing of their own. Happy Brewing!

Pandemonium!

Land

1 Island

3 Mountain

4 Volcanic Island

4 Ancient Tomb

1 City of Traitors

7 Fetchlands

4 Wasteland

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Viashino Sandstalker

4 Viashino Sandscout

2 Phyrexian Dreadnought

4 Imaginary Pet

Total: 14

Spells

4 Pandemonium

3 Stifle

4 Brainstorm

4 Mox Diamond

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Fire // Ice

Total: 22

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Blood Moon

4 Force of Will

2 Pyroblast

1 Red Elemental Blast

Where's Wally?

I know what you’re thinking, “Walls? He must be joking”. Quite frankly, I don’t even blame you. When I first started looking into this type of deck, it was admittedly for something more casual. The more I brewed however, the more I realized how much potential it has. Fun, powerful and swingy? Sign me up! While I make no claims that this deck will win your next tournament, it does have some very strong plays and it really CAN win. Intrigued? Let me tell you about Where’s Wally?

In the early days of Magic design, walls were quite prominent in each set. Most of the time, they would offer a high defense for a relatively cheap cost, and could be used to buy a player some time. In other words - they were used to defend the life total as you looked for a win condition. Because of this, I have found the trick to making a deck based on walls is to treat it as a control deck.  The question then becomes, how do I win with a deck focused on defending?

Believe it or not, the main problem with making a deck based on walls is not finding a win condition - it has plenty of those. Both Animate Wall and Rolling Stones are white enchantments that let your walls go on the offensive. Ageless Sentinels is another option, as it need only defend a creature in order to be able to attack on its own. So where’s the problem, right?

The issue is that these win conditions do nothing on their own, and thus you create a sort of card disadvantage by having so many of them in your deck. To help get around that, I included Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Mulch. Blossoms lets you draw a card when it hits the battlefield and Mulch is exceptional when you are going to lose a Wall anyway and want to replace it. These provide the defense you expect in the deck while creating the opportunities for card advantage.

Red. I had actually considered focusing more on Red throughout the building process, but eventually decided against it. The main reason for this is because of the nature of the deck – a long and controlling-type. So why even think about focusing on more power-based cards at all? I had initially considered the potential of both Fling and Glyph of Destruction. They are incredibly strong together, and offer some very fast win conditions. I found however, that they were too situational and dependent on one another. I do believe the colour itself offers a lot of possibilities however, and encourage others to try their hand at designing their own decks around it. Happy Brewing!

Where’s Wally?

Land

4 Plateau

4 Savannah

1 Plains

1 Forest
1 Mountain

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Windswept Heath

4 Wasteland

Total: 23

Creatures

3 Sunweb

4 Wall of Blossoms

4 Wall of Mulch

2 Ageless Sentinels

4 Tinder Wall

Total: 17

Spells

4 Rolling Stones

4 Animate Wall

4 Regrowth

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Lightning Bolt

Total: 20

Sideboard

2 Pyroclasm

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Pyroblast

1 City of Solitude

Solifaerity

“Solidarity, my brothers and sisters – together, we are mightier than our enemy.” It sounds like a line from a pretty awesome movie, right? In this case, it would be about a group of faeries who are working together to win a card game. Geez, maybe I should stop writing about Magic and start on some Hollywood blockbusters! But nah, this is way more fun. Today’s deck actually took quite a bit of play-testing and tweaking before I was ready to write about it. Any deck that combines the satisfaction of tight play with the spice of chance is bound to be fun. So with that in mind, let’s talk about Solifaerity.

Solifaerity is an iteration of the High Tide decks that have been around for a very long time. While some might see it as a sort of budget option, I found that the use of certain cards actually enabled it to play superior ones. Let me explain that.. because I chose to use Cloud of Faeries instead of Reset in this deck, I was then able to use Sleight of Hand over Opt or Peek. Since the deck wants to win on your own turn, the Instant speed is no longer necessary, thus allowing you to play the better card(s). I admit that I was tempted to use Peek though, and some might want to, simply because knowing your opponent’s hand can be very valuable in terms of choosing when to go for the win. In fact, I put one in the sideboard as a Wish target for this very reason.

The name Solifaerity isn’t just because it’s an awesome pun – Cloud of Faeries really does have a large effect on the deck. Not only does it affect when you want to win, but it also gives cards such as Snap some extra utility. For example, if you have a bunch of mana in your pool, you can Snap back Faeries and Cycle them to dig for more business. Another thing they can do? Block. But only use them for this when it is absolutely necessary, ok?

Speaking of business, let’s get down to it - how to play the deck. There are a couple of ways to win with Solifaerity, and they can be somewhat complicated. Essentially, you want to either generate a ton of mana and win via Stroke of Genius OR generate a huge storm count and win via Brain Freeze. The good news is that the way you do either of these things are by generating lots of mana via High Tides and drawing lots of spells. In other words: fun!

Alright then - the ‘how’. High Tide enables you to generate a ton of mana, but it works with a lot of cards to do this. Turnabout, Cloud of Faeries and Time Spiral all allow you to untap your lands to re-tap them for mana. This is done to both create mana and cast more spells. You always want a Time Spiral and/or a Meditate, as these allow you to draw more cards and continue the combo going for more mana generation. Cunning Wish is also a major player, as it allows the toolbox utility of your sideboard (this is also a reason there is a Meditate in the SB, just in case).

Comparison to decks that use Reset. Many people consider the strength of those decks to be that you may cast the win con in response to something such as a hoser. I find that Reset can also be a limitation however, as you can only cast it at certain times. Because of this, I think that both versions are viable strategies. Merchant Scroll does make Opt tempting though, so it can be a tough choice. I am not opposed to writing about a Reset-style deck in the future, but feel free to try your hand at both and see which you prefer. Happy Brewing!

Solifaerity

Land

10 Island

7 Fetchlands

Total: 17

Creatures

4 Cloud of Faeries

Total: 4

Spells

4 High Tide

3 Meditate

4 Force of Will

4 Brainstorm

4 Impulse

3 Cunning Wish

4 Time Spiral

4 Sleight of Hand

3 Turnabout

4 Merchant Scroll

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Snap

Total: 39

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Brain Freeze

2 Snap

1 Meditate

1 Rebuild

2 Chain of Vapor

1 Counterspell

1 Opt

1 Peek

Megrim? You grim!

In 1999, Randy Buehler and Erik Lauer created a deck that led to the emergency banning of a card in the middle of a season. The win condition of the deck was Megrim. Seriously. Now of course, that was not the card that got banned – but it proved that Megrim could be a card you build around as a win condition. In the spirit of emulating the pair’s success, today’s deck uses both Megrim and The Rack to damage the opponent and win the game. Today we are playing: Megrim? You grim!

To start off, let’s focus on the win conditions themselves: Megrim and The Rack. Both cards are a 4-of in the deck because they work so well together. Ever heard of playing nice? These two are the perfect example of it. For example, The Rack and Megrim both stack with multiple copies on the board, thus dealing more damage when they are out. They are also potent together because you are ensuring that your opponent can be losing life whether they have no cards to discard or they do. All that is without even mentioning the psychological warfare being waged, as your opponent knows they’re going to be losing life on both their turn and yours.

Alright, so we’ve established the key pieces of the deck and how awesome they are.  Great. Now let’s talk about the actual win conditions: the mana denial and discard packages. First let’s talk about the mana denial provided by our friends Wasteland, Sinkhole and Vindicate. You want to focus on their lands early on, as it means they can’t cast their spells and thus always have something to discard. That said, you might want to change your strategy entirely if The Rack is in your opening grip. If that’s the case, focus on getting rid of their hand ASAP. Vindicate is a very versatile card, as it can act as land destruction, but also as creature removal should you require it.

And that brings us to the discard. You’ve got your typical All-Stars in Hymn and Duress, but the deck plays a few you might not be as familiar with. Gerard’s Verdict is, in my opinion, a very underplayed card. Yes, the opponent can choose which 2 cards to discard, but so what? It’s a 2-for-1 that can also (and often) gain you life as well. The card is awesome! Not to mention that it, along with Hymn, can quickly make Blackmail a very real card. Due to the main deck’s lack of efficient creature removal, you might also want to lead off with an Ostracize as it can really ruin your opponent’s opening plan.

The main problem with the deck that I posted is its lack of creature interaction/control. Other than Vindicate, you don’t have a lot of ways to deal with weenie decks pre-sideboard. Some players might want to focus on this in their own build of the deck, or just jam a bunch of answers in the sideboard as I did. As always – Happy Brewing!

Megrim/Rack

Land:

4 Scrubland

5 Swamp

7 Fetchlands

4 Wasteland

Total: 20

Creatures:

Total: 0

Spells:

4 The Rack

4 Megrim

4 Sinkhole

4 Dark Ritual

4 Duress

4 Blackmail

4 Ostrasize

4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Gerrard’s Verdict

4 Vindicate

Total: 40

Sideboard:

2 Ensnaring Bridge

2 Pox

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Engineered Plague

4 Swords to Plowshares

Nic Fit

Today I’m going to talk about a deck whose name I can’t explain. There seem to be several different stories behind it, that don’t really seem to match. Where one person claims it’s the result of a misspelled word, another says it stems from a portion of a key card. Heck, I even read somewhere that it’s just a joke about game lengths and cigarette addiction. Figure it out yet? If you somehow missed the deck title above this paragraph, then you’re not very observant. Anyway, today I’m going to be talking about Nic Fit.

Veteran Explorer and Cabal Therapy. This interaction is probably the defining factor of the deck. Your ideal Turn 1 is to play a Veteran Explorer, followed by a Cabal Therapy on T2. A lot of decks do not play the number of basic lands that Nic Fit does, and thus it will almost always give you an edge in both tempo and card advantage. This is especially true when one considers the effect of land drops, as well as the use of Cabal Therapy x 2.

Sacrifice outlets and your creatures. The deck has several different ways of sacrificing your Explorers and getting out threats. Recurring Nightmare and Phyrexian Tower are both good secondary options if you do not have a Therapy in your hand. Nightmare costs more to cast, but can be re-used not only to sacrifice creatures but also to recur them. For example, sacrificing an Explorer with Nightmare to bring back a Wall of Blossoms can be very frustrating for your opponent.

Finding your cards. Nic Fit has a few options of looking through your library for the cards that you want.  I added a singleton Mirri’s Guile as a pseudo Explorer because it can be cast on T1 and help find them if they are not in your hand. There are 2 Sylvan Library however because once you get a Explorer, you want Library over Guile. This is because it can survive the 1 mana Pernicious Deeds you use on your Explorer/their creatures. Another option the deck has is Survival of the Fittest, which works quite nicely with Basking Rootwalla and Squee, Goblin Nabob.

Threats. You know how I’m always talking about the days before creature power creep? I would ALMOST consider Spiritmonger to be an exception. He’s just that good. The main thing that keeps him fair-ish is that he can be chump blocked. The addition of Rancor in the deck helps mitigate the drawback however, as it allows him to trample over blockers and deal damage. Because of this, I had considered adding in more Rancors, but since the deck has good card drawing and deck filtration engines I decided against it.

Other cards I had considered for the deck were Unearth, Disturbed Burial and Innocent Blood. You might also want to add more variety in your win conditions (including more Rancors). There are tons of options available in Ancient and how you want to win is up to you. Happy Brewing!

Nic Fit

Land

3 Bayou

2 Savannah

4 Forest

2 Swamp

2 Plains

7 Fetchlands

1 Phyrexian Tower

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Veteran Explorer

4 Basking Rootwalla

2 Deranged Hermit

3 Spiritmonger

2 Wall of Blossoms

1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Monk Idealist

Total: 17

4 Cabal Therapy

4 Survival of the Fittest

4 Pernicious Deed

1 Mirri’s Guile

2 Sylvan Library

2 Recurring Nightmare

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Vindicate

1 Rancor

Total: 23

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Withered Wretch

4 Duress

1 Engineered Plague

3 Vindicate

2 Defense Grid