WU Stiflenought

Phyrexian Dreadnought has always been a cool card. A 12/12 Trample for 1 is amazing, even by today’s ridiculous standard of creatures. Of course, back then WotC believed in creating interesting “build around me” drawbacks on their big creatures, which required some creativity from deckbuilders. The drawback for ‘nought caused many players to scratch their heads, and it just begged to be broken. Fittingly, a few ways to do so were printed in Blue, which is supposed to be the colour most associated with artifacts. Of course, this meant that you were actually casting a 12/12 Trample for 1U, but hey, that’s pretty good too, right? Right??

The aforementioned Blue spells in the combo are Stifle and Vision Charm. How to use Stifle is self explanatory, but Vision Charm is much less obvious. Here’s how it works: when Dreadnought comes into play, the sacrifice aspect goes on the stack; in response, a player can phase Dreadnought out via Charm. This means that when it comes to sacrificing it, the creature isn’t there and thus isn’t put into the graveyard. When it phases back in, you don’t have to do it again. Weird, creative and cool? Indeed! The funny thing is this didn’t actually work when Vision Charm was first printed, and thus the name Stiflenought instead of Visionought.

For the win! Obviously, the deck is about putting together the combo and then protecting it. Brainstorm is infamous for being able to filter through your deck to find the card(s) you need, so I won’t go into it how awesome it is. To add some more consistency, I decided to include the very underrated Intuition as well. Intuition has a few uses here - it can be used to find any of our key cards, and/or it can be a part of its own combo with Accumulated Knowledge.  Ok, so that covers putting the combo together – now to protect it. Meddling Mage and a lot of counterspells are the name of the game in that department, but they’re not the only ones. Mother of Runes is incredible as well.  Mother is the Ancient version of a modern day planeswalker. She can do so many things it’s ridiculous, both on offense and defense. Granting protection from colours allows a creature to do a bunch of things, including - block without dying, avoid removal, attack unblocked, etc. She also casts W to cast, so a T1 Mother of Runes and then T2 Stiflenought is a great way to start your day.

Stiflenought decks have been around for a long time, and I managed to find several with different colour combinations. There are a lot of options I’d considered before deciding on WU, but I don’t want to mention them because part of what makes this format so fun is how unexplored it is. So go ahead - explore. Happy brewing!

WU Stiflenought

Land:

4 Wasteland

4 Tundra

8 Fetchland

3 Island

1 Plains

Total: 20

Creatures:

4 Mother of Runes

4 Phyrexian Dreadnought

4 Meddling Mage

Total:12

Spells:

4 Brainstorm

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 Stifle

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Vision Charm

3 Intuition

4 Accumulated Knowledge

Total:28

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Disenchant

4 Orim’s Chant

2 Misdirection

1 Wrath of God

Pox

“Ring around the rosie..” Fun fact – did you know that the aforementioned children’s song is actually about the plague? Also known as the black Balance - Pox has been around for a long time, but was largely overshadowed by the other BBB costing spell in Ice Age when it first came out. It certainly has its fans however, even spawning several decks in Legacy due to its sheer power. Pox also works in the Ancient format - with access to it and a variety of cards that let you use its effect to your advantage, a player can maintain control of their opponent’s board before going for the win.

The tricky part of Pox is in the numbers. In the early days, Wizards was very focused on card flavour. As a result, Pox has each player sacrifice one third of their land, creatures in play, hand and life total rounded up. Fun fact #2 – the black plague killed approximately 1/3 of Europe’s population. Oh WotC, have you no shame?? Back to Pox though - you want to cast it to maximize its effect on your opponent while minimizing its effect on you. The words “rounded up” are VERY important here. For example: if an opponent has seven cards in hand, this means that they have to discard 3 cards. 4 lands in play means they have to sacrifice 2, etc. A well-timed Pox can decimate an opponent’s hand and board state, so it’s important to know when to cast it. It can also decimate yours though, so pay attention.

Pox decks are all about control. There are a few ways of doing this, but the focus of this particular deck is on discard and mana denial. The plan is to use cards such as Pox, Sinkhole and Wasteland to keep them from having mana (and thus casting their spells). Hymn to Tourach is great because it can act as both discard AND mana denial. I don’t think there’s much point in explaining the merits of discard, but Encroach does stand out here. Obviously, the card can either be very good or very bad depending on the situation. You want to see it early on, which is why there are 4 in the deck. If you’re on the play and the opponent keeps a 1-land hand, then Encroach can just win the game. I think of it as a lesser Hymn in that it can thin their hand and deny them mana.

The threats. To get around the creature sweep of Pox and friends, you want your win conditions to be unaffected by them. Mishra’s Factory is probably the most obvious way of doing this, but it’s not the only one. Nether Spirit is great because it can actually help you gain card advantage when discarded or sacrificed to Pox. There’s only one in the deck though. Why? Read the card. Chimeric Idol works a lot like Mishra’s in that it only becomes a creature once it is activated, thus getting around the creature sacrifice cards in the deck. Lastly, Cursed Scroll does double duty because it works as a win con AND targeted creature removal.

The last thing I want to touch upon is the 2 slots I used for Phyrexian Arena. Originally, they were 2 Bottomless Pit. I’m not sure which is correct, if either, but as always you can tinker around and customize the deck to how you want it. Happy brewing!

Pox

Land:

4 Mishra’s Factory

4 Wasteland

14 Swamp

1 Cabal Pit

1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Total: 24

Creatures:

1 Nether Spirit

Total: 1

Spells:

4 Pox

4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Sinkhole

4 Dark Ritual

4 Innocent Blood

4 Duress

4 Encroach

2 Cursed Scroll

3 Chimeric Idol

2 Phyrexian Arena

Total: 35

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Engineered Plague

4 Powder Keg

2 Phyrexian Gate

1 Planar Void

Zoo

“Zoos are such fun!” they told me. “It’s a blast!” they yelled. I just wish I’d heard them whisper “oderm” at the end. Getting its name from the numerous animals at its command, the Zoo archetype has been around for a very long time. At some point, WotC had printed enough cheap beaters/pump spells that weren’t just in White, and the RGx aggro deck was born! In fact, I remember having the best deck at my school (a UW control deck), and getting smashed by my friend’s RG weenie deck he’d read about. Nature is to be respected my friends!

The main focus of the deck is speed. You want to get out as many cheap and efficient threats as you can to beat your opponent down. In that sense, Zoo’s best T1-drops are Kird Ape and Skyshroud Elite - creatures that say 1/1 but are actually 2/3. Combine either with a Rancor, and you have a 4/4 trampler hitting the opponent by turn two! The deck also contains Werebear and Nimble Mongoose, both of which are cheap creatures that get bigger as you accumulate more cards in your graveyard.

Another thing Zoo likes to do is Armageddon the opponent out of the game. Once they establish a large number of efficient threats, a Zoo player can then clear the board of land. This leaves the Zookeeper with a fast clock and protection from most mass removal. Armageddon can also help the player reach Threshold, thus growing their bears and geese to finish the opponent off.

If you scrolled down to the deck first, then you may have noticed the lack of Swords to Plowshares in either of the boards. I didn’t add them to the deck because Zoo does NOT want the opponent gaining life. The long game is not your friend, and that’s exactly what Swords can create. The deck does contain a lot of burn-type removal however, which can help clear the way for attackers or finish the opponent off. Zoo is a super fun deck that has a lot of different weapons in its arsenal - how you want to build it is up to you. Happy brewing!

 

Zoo

Land:

4 Plateau

4 Taiga

4 Savannah

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Windswept Heath

Total: 20

Creatures:

4 Kird Ape

1 Blastoderm

4 Nimble Mongoose

4 Savannah Lions

4 Werebear

4 Skyshroud Elite

Total: 21

Spells:

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Armageddon

4 Chain Lightning

4 Rancor

4 Shock

Total: 19

Sideboard:

2 Disenchant

4 Red Elemental Blast

4 Giant Growth

1 Pyroclasm

4 Tormod’s Crypt

WG Enchantress

“Please don’t play that Tranquility in your hand!” Now that’s something you don’t hear every day - unless someone’s playing Enchantress of course. The good news is that no one plays Tranquility anyway, so you probably won’t be hearing it any time soon. Wait, no one plays enchantment hate cards these days? That also sounds like a great reason for you to be playing Enchantress!

What is Enchantress? It’s a prison-style deck that aims to lock out the opponent via enchantments, before casting a win condition and beating them down to 0. It accomplishes this by generating massive card advantage vis its namesake Enchantresses: Argothian Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress and Enchantress’ Presence. These three cards allow the player to go through their deck pretty quickly and assemble the lock before winning the game.

What is the lock? It can actually be a couple of cards: Elephant Grass and/or Solitary Confinement. If your opponent’s playing creatures, these two cards are your new best friends. Why? Because they make it very difficult, if not impossible, to deal damage to you. Elephant Grass costs G to cast, and has a Cumulative Upkeep of 1. It stops black creatures from attacking you, and forces the opponent to pay 2 for every other creature they want to send your way. Solitary Confinement goes even further, making it so you receive no damage while it is out in play. Oh right, and you can also play Moat if you want to.

The win condition. As with most prison-style decks, the majority of the cards are meant to lock out an opponent. The win condition is almost an afterthought, put in to take the game once your opponent can’t. In GW Enchantress, that win condition is Sacred Mesa. Once the board has been filled with enchantments, it becomes quite easy to pump out a lot of Pegasus tokens via Serra’s Sanctum. This allows the Enchantress player to either fly over the opponent’s defenses, or swarm past their flyers in large numbers. If you want more win conditions, Yavimaya Enchantress is another option, albeit much slower and vulnerable to removal.

Other versions of the deck have included Red for War of Words, or even gone Blue/Green and not even played White. As always, customizing the deck is up to you. Happy brewing!

WG Enchantress

Land:

4 Serra’s Sanctum

4 Windswept Heath

4 Savannah

4 Forest

4 Plains

Total: 20

Creatures:

4 Argothian Enchantress

4 Verduran Enchantress

Total: 8

Spells:

4 Sacred Mesa

4 Enlightened Tutor

4 Sterling Grove

4 Enchantress’ Presence

4 Elephant Grass

4 Solitary Confinement

4 Wild Growth

2 Mirri’s Guile

1 Replenish

1 Moat

Total: 28

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Ground Seal

4 Swords to Plowshares

2 Null Rod

2 Carpet of Flowers

2 Karmic Justice

Burn

“Some men just want to watch the world burn”. Variants of burn have been around for a long time – a LONG time. What’s not to love? The deck hits hard, fast and consistently. Burn is a very aggressive deck with 1 goal: get your opponent’s life total to zero ASAP. While technically the deck does have interactions via creature removal, that’s usually not the path you want to take. Only remove creatures when necessary – the rest of the time? Go for the opponent directly.

The list I’ve provided is by no means fine-tuned. I put it together to show the main cards in the deck, as well as a few less played options to show how customizable it can be. “Burn” spells have always been popular and as such, are considered to be the defining aspect of Red. The versatility of either removing a creature or damaging your opponent is just so good that a lot of decks have made them the focus of their strategy.

I’ve decided to talk about a few cards that seem to have significant drawbacks, but are actually quite strong. Ball Lightning has been around since the early days of Magic, and remains a decent card to this day. Yes, you have to sacrifice it at the end of turn. But before that? Your opponent can either block it and lose some creature(s) (and still possibly take some damage), or just take the hit and lose almost a third of their life total. For RRR! Jackal Pup and Cursed Scroll are cards from the Tempest set, and really made an impact when they came out. As an aggressive 1-drop red creature, Jackal Pup was something the deck/colour had wanted for a long time; it gave red decks a turn 1 creature that could attack for 2. Sure, if it got hit you would take some damage, but when you’re playing a deck that deals damage faster than most decks, that’s ok. Cursed Scroll also saw a lot of play despite its drawback seeming to make it inconsistent. Burn often only has 1-2 cards in its hand anyway however, so the card was very consistent once you’d cast all of your spells. Scroll also gives the deck some virtual card advantage – something the deck often lacks. I included Browbeat for the same reason, as it either deals 5 damage (awesome) or puts cards in your hand (also awesome).  

As you can see, there are a lot of options for building a Burn deck. I don’t recommend cutting Bolts, but there are tons of cards from the game’s first sets to choose from. Whether you prefer a more creature-heavy deck, want to focus on spells, or even splash another colour, the choice is yours. Happy brewing!

Burn

Lands:

10 Mountain

8 Fetchlands

2 Barbarian Ring

Total: 20

Creatures:

4 Grim Lavamancer

4 Jackal Pup

4 Ball Lightning

Total: 12

Spells:

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

4 Fireblast

1 Cursed Scroll

1 Shock

4 Flame Rift

4 Price of Progress

2 Browbeat

Total: 28

Sideboard:

1 Pyroclasm

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Pyroblast

2 Ensnaring Bridge

4 Pyrostatic Pillar

4 Tormod’s Crypt

Elves

Do you enjoy playing lots of creatures, ramping mana and pointy ears? Then have I got a deck for you! Elves have always been synonymous with fantasy, so it should come as no surprise that they’ve always been a part of Magic. What IS surprising however, is that they originally did not get a Lord like Goblins, Merfolk or Zombies did. They’ve gotten them since however, along with lots of other awesome cards that have made them into the powerhouse tribal deck they are today.

Why play Elves? Well for starters, the deck has a lot of fun synergies. For example, the amount of mana you can generate on turns 2-4 can be pretty ridiculous(ly awesome). The most obvious creature for this is Priest of Titania, which pairs well with Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Symbiote to untap and produce more and more mana. Birchlore Rangers are also good at generating a lot of mana by allowing creatures you just cast to be tapped as well. An example of this would be to cast Birchlore Ranger, a bunch of 1-drop Elves, tap those for more 1-drop elves, then tap Priest of Titania for even more mana to cast more 1-drop elves and continue the cycle. Did you follow me there? The deck isn’t as simple as you might think.

Another strength of this deck is its ability to generate a lot of card advantage. The two ways of doing this are via Multani’s Acolyte and Sylvan Messenger, both of which allow you to draw more cards to add to your arsenal. Combine this with the aforementioned mana ramp, and you can constantly draw and cast more recruits for your forest army. Yes, you read that correctly – you can do this constantly. Remember when I mentioned Wirewood Symbiote untapping your mana creatures? These two are the ones you want to be bouncing back to your hand. That means you can re-cast them again and again to draw more cards. Playing this deck often means having 4-5+ creatures on the board and 7 cards in your hand at the end of turn 2.

Options. I put the Weird Harvest there as a pseudo 5^th copy of Sylvan Messenger or Multani’s Acolyte, but unless you cast it for one of these two creatures it’s just card disadvantage. Living Wish was added as a toolbox/game 1 answer against artifacts/enchantments et cetera but I admit I haven’t put much thought into the sideboard as the card is just a 1-of. Both of these sorceries are big maybes and the deck definitely has other options.

One of the great things about Elves is its resiliency. Yes, board sweepers exist, but this deck is so fast at generating mana and drawing more cards that it can recover from Wrath-effects. Elves' have been around since the beginning of the game, and their popularity has ensured a lot of new printings; this means there are a LOT of Elf cards you can use to customize the deck the way you want. Happy brewing!

 

Elves

Land:

5 Forest

2 Bayou

4 Windswepth Heath

4 Gaea’s Cradle

2 Wirewood Lodge

Total: 17

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 Elvish Champion

4 Sylvan Messenger
2 Wirewood Hivemaster

1 Elves of Deep Shadow

Total: 39

Spells:

2 Overrun

1 Living Wish

1 Weird Harvest

Total: 4

Sideboard:

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Wellwisher

2 Naturalize

2 Caller of the Claw

4 Duress

1 Elvish Scrapper

1 Elvish Lyrist

Burning Storm

“There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne.“ Ah Storm, described by Wizards of the Coast’s Mark Rosewater as their most broken mechanic. Of course, this depends on who you ask, as the mechanic/deck archetype has friends AND foes around the world. There are a few choice win conditions in Storm decks, but the most popular has always been Tendrils of Agony. For 2BB you can drain 2 life from the opponent and gain 2 life for yourself. Not very impressive you say? Oh right, you make additional copies of it for each spell that was played during the turn. Were you at 20 life points? Not anymore. Welcome to Burning Storm!

When Burning Wish first came out, it was part of a cycle of cards that allowed a player to grab any card of the specified type that they owned from outside the game. This was quickly changed for tournament settings, limiting a player to cards from their sideboard instead. Many people saw this as a chance to build a “toolbox” sideboard, with Wishes allowing them to tutor for whatever card they needed at the time. Burning Storm follows this philosophy, putting both utility cards and win conditions in the sideboard to be searched for as required.

In order to bring the opponent’s life total down to 0, the deck has to be able to play enough spells in a turn to get the proper Storm count. Some decks choose to focus on graveyard recursion (such as IGGy Pop decks), but Burning Storm focuses on card drawing to get the win. It does so via cards such as Infernal Contract, Cruel Bargain, Diminishing Returns and even Brainstorm to an extent.

Diminishing Returns was one of the last cards I added to this deck, but after testing it out, it should have been one of the first. The card is amazing at re-stocking your hand and even helps give you mana to keep adding spells to your Storm count. How? If you crack your Lotus Petals and Lion’s Eye Diamonds in response to casting Returns, they get shuffled back into your library and thus can be re-drawn. The Mox Diamonds are also there to help the deck re-establish a mana base once you’ve cast Diminishing Returns and keep drawing ‘useless’ lands after you’ve played your land drop.

The sideboard contains a few cards that don’t seem very strong, or are even out of place. As I mentioned earlier however, the sideboard acts as a toolbox. The bolts are there as removal in case your opponent sides in Meddling Mage. The bounce spells are there to deal with cards such as Ivory Mask or Circle of Protection: Black. If you think there are better options though, you can add them! The sideboard, and even the mainboard, are very customizable and should be made to suit your play style and meta. Happy brewing!

Burning Storm

Land:

1 Badlands

3 Underground Sea

2 Volcanic Island

4 Polluted Delta

3 Bloodstained Mire

1 Island

1 Swamp

Total: 15

Spells:

4 Dark Ritual

4 Burning Wish

4 Infernal Contract

1 Tendrils of Agony

4 Cabal Ritual

4 Duress

3 Cabal Therapy

4 Brainstorm

4 Sleight of Hand

4 Lion’s Eye Diamond

4 Lotus Petal

3 Mox Diamond

2 Diminishing Returns

Total: 45

Sideboard:

1 Diminishing Returns

1 Cruel Bargain

1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Cabal Therapy

1 Temporal Fissure

1 Dematerialize

2 Chain of Vapor

4 Peek

2 Lightning Bolt

1 Chain Lightning