NO RUG

Duck. Duck. Mongoose! Today’s list is an Ancient take on a semi-old Legacy deck. Sorry, did I just lose ya there? Allow me to elaborate.. the deck didn’t actually exist between the span of Alpha-Scourge. In fact, it seems to have been created about 7 years after Legacy became a format. So why do I think it could work in Ancient, a format where creatures aren’t the broken monstrosities they are now? Because the combination of tempo and combo found in NO RUG makes it a force to be reckoned with, that’s why!

Despite not having a creature like Progenitus in the format, Natural Order-based decks do have some pretty strong targets. Among them, I found Fungal Shambler, Symbiotic Wurm and Verdant Force to be among the best for this type of deck. As such, I decided to include one of each, as they all provide advantages depending on the situation at hand. It is also good to keep in mind that if a creature gets stuck in your hand, you can always use Brainstorm to put them back in your library.

While the deck does try to win by getting one of the big guys into play, it can also win via its tempo-based creatures: Werebear and Nimble Mongoose. Once you hit Threshold, these guys become serious threats at a low casting cost. Not only that, but they are also good without 7 cards in the graveyard. For example, Werebear is able to help you ramp mana early on, which can be very relevant if you are going for a fast Natural Order or if you’re facing a land destruction deck. The Mongeese don’t provide mana ramp, but their Shroud does make them hard for your opponent to destroy, which means you should have a target for Natural Order later on.

So what’s the strategy here? To be honest, there are a few of them. You can either focus on the combo with Natural Order, in which case I recommend trying to get out Birds and/or Werebear to ramp. There’s also the tempo game, which can win the game fairly quickly in its own right. Which path you take depends on a variety of different factors and I recommend you practice each. The versatility that the deck provides is one of its many strengths and I definitely recommend you try it out. Happy Brewing!

NO RUG

Land

3 Volcanic Island

4 Tropical Island

1 Taiga

4 Polluted Delta

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Wasteland

Total: 20

Creatures

4 Werebear

4 Nimble Mongoose

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Fungal Shambler

1 Verdant Force

1 Symbiotic Wurm

Total: 15

Spells

4 Natural Order

4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will

4 Daze

4 Stifle

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Portent

Total: 25

Sideboard

1 Red Elemental Blast

2 Pyroblast

4 Tormod’s Crypt

2 Naturalize

1 Grim Lavamancer

4 Fire / Ice

1 Penumbra Wurm

Enchantress' Bloomers

“This isn’t your grandmother’s Bloom deck.” As many people know, Mike Long helped popularize the idea that a combo deck could win consistently enough to be taken seriously. The deck he played, known as Pros Bloom, is considered to be one of the most important in MtG history. The deck I’m going to be writing about today.. isn’t that one. It does however, (ab)use Cadaverous Bloom in much the same way, to help set up a combo win to finish off the opponent. For those hoping to read about Pros Bloom.. I hope I get around to it eventually. BUT, for those wanting to read about a different take on a ‘Bloom’ deck, allow me to introduce to you: Enchantress’ Bloomers.

Enchantress’ Bloomers is an interesting build that sort of combines a few decks to become its own. Borrowing aspects from Enchantress, Pros Bloom and Storm; Bloomers attempts to create a bunch of mana, draw a ton of cards, and then win via Tendrils of Agony when they can. So how does it go about doing these things? Let’s dive in and see.

Mana production. A key aspect of how the deck functions is via its ability to create a ton of mana to cast more spells. There are a LOT of ways to do this.. Cadaverous Bloom, Wild Growth, Gaea’s Touch and Exploration (all enchantments), each allow you to ramp your mana. Also, unlike Pros Bloom, which used Squandered Resources, I chose to use Dark Ritual instead as it allows faster Bloom drops.

Card draw. Ok, so we have a bunch of mana via Cadaverous Bloom, but how do we get more cards when we’re discarding ones we’ve drawn?? Remember how I mentioned all of those enchantment mana ramps before? They work very well with the cards containing ‘Enchantress’ in their name. When you have multiple copies of them in play, the deck allows you to draw a LOT of cards – more than enough to make use of Cadaverous Bloom and Tendrils of Agony for the win.

Another colour? This is something that I seriously considered, as the other colours have legitimate arguments for adding them. White has Serra’s Sanctum, Red has Burning Wish – both offering different approaches to how to play. The main colour that I was considering for this deck however is Blue, which offers cards such as Hibernation and Wash Out.  If you prefer staying in colour, Freyalise’s Charm and Leshrac’s Sigil are also interesting options. I mention these cards because they are just a small sample of the variations you can take on building the deck, and I encourage others to try them out for themselves’. As always – Happy Brewing!

Enchantress’ Bloomers

Land

10 Forest
4 Bayou
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Argothian Enchantress

Total: 4

Spells

4 Enchantress Presence
4 Exploration
4 Mirri’s Guile
2 Elephant Grass

4 Wild Growth

4 Duress
3 Gaea’s Touch
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cadaverous Bloom
2 Tendrils of Agony

Total: 35

Sideboard

4 Carpet of Flowers

4 Planar Void

4 Ground Seal

3 Naturalize

Maze of Webs

What do you get when you combine a bunch of Elves, mana locks and some obscure land tuckers? Umm.. this. I’ve been considering how to build this deck for quite some time now, and am happy to see it done. Seriously, I don’t even know how long ago I started this thing (hint: a long time ago). As with many brews, this one started out with just an interesting card and a dream. After a bit of research, I found that others had tried tinkering with it as well, so I drew on them for some inspiration and here’s what we got: Maze of Webs.

As you can probably tell, the name of the deck stems from the 2 main lock pieces: Root Maze and Winter Orb. Originally, the deck focused mainly on just using Root Maze. I decided to add Orb, because it adds some consistency to your draws without taking away from the main game plan: ruining the opponent’s mana. “But why Root Maze?” With most decks using fetch lands in Ancient, this card was just begging to be abused. Notice how Elf Maze uses no fetch lands? That’s because it takes an opponent 3 turns to get mana out of a fetch land.

The webs. These things are awesome for locking down an opponent’s mana. Tsabo’s Web can be used to keep certain lands tapped, and Mana Web means they really have to budget how and when they tap a land for mana. If they’re saving up their mana for a spell, then it had better be a good one.

Mana tuckers. Plow Under and Fallow Earth.. what, you’ve never heard of them? Frankly, I’m not that surprised. The effect of putting land(s) on top of an opponent’s library are pretty obscure and narrow, but oh are they ever awesome with a Root Maze in play! Just remember: friendships were not made playing Maze of Webs.

Alright, on to the cards I’d considered. Surprisingly, there is a lot of room for brewing here. So what cards did I consider? Ankh of Mishra, Opposition and Parallax Tide were the frontrunners, and were actually in a version I had considered. I don’t care for the reliance on Ankh however, and adding a second colour means can complicate the mana base (we do NOT want fetch lands). There’s certainly potential there though, and if you’re curious about the deck then you should try them out. As always – Happy Brewing!

Maze of Webs

15 Forest

4 Gaea’s Cradle

4 Wasteland

Total: 23

Creatures

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Fyndhorn Elves

4 Quirion Ranger

2 Verdant Force

Total: 14

Spells

4 Root Maze

3 Winter Orb

4 Tsabo’s Web

3 Mana Web

4 Natural Order

1 Fallow Earth

4 Plow Under

Total: 23

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Naturalize

1 Winter Orb

1 Mana Web

2 Hurricane

3 Ice Storm

Cocoa Pebbles

Ahh Cocoa Pebbles: the breakfast of champions. Back in the early days of Magic, deck builders had decided that naming their creations after breakfast cereals was the thing to do. Admittedly, I’m not quite sure of the reason; but I do know that it became a trend that spawned many a combo deck name. Over time, these cereal decks become strong, consistent and relevant.

Let’s start off by identifying the combo in Cocoa Pebbles: Enduring Renewal, Goblin Bombardment and Shield Sphere. Not only do these cards curve nicely into each other - they are also pretty hard to remove. Bombardment and Renewal are both enchantments, which helps limit what kind of removal can be used to destroy them once they hit the battlefield. Shield Sphere is a creature, but its high toughness means it can survive many direct damage spells and even block to buy you some time.

Speaking of creatures, the deck only plays 8 of them: 4 Sphere and 4 Academy Rector (4+4=8). The latter is actually a super star of the deck and the main reason I decided to opt on this style of Pebbles. Allow me to elaborate: I had started the deck with Blue instead of Black as the third colour. The “problem” was that there were so many ways to tutor for the win conditions, that Blue sort of became unnecessary. Another bonus is that Rector not only gets your key win conditions, but it also has a nice interaction with Phyrexian Tower, which allows some ramp as well.

Buying time. Despite being a combo deck, Cocoa Pebbles can take some time to win. The win involves three different cards, one of which costs 4 mana. There were a few different ways that I chose to address this problem: ramp, stall and removal. The ramping is straightforward: 4 Mox Diamond in order to cast spells ASAP. The stall should never be your go-to move, as it involves using Sphere as a blocker – thus putting it in removal danger it would otherwise not be in. The removal attacks both spells and creatures via Swords, Bolt and Duress.

Early on, I had mentioned wrestling with which colour combinations to play in the deck, and must admit that I am not sure that either is more ‘correct’ than the other. In the end, I found the low-ish number of Blue cards were not enough for FoW, which sort of cemented my choice. In the future, I plan on focusing on a more Fruity Pebbles style and perhaps comparing the two more in-depth. I certainly encourage others to try their own other versions before deciding which they prefer. As always – Happy Brewing!

Cocoa Pebbles

Land

4 Scrubland

4 Plateau

4 Flooded Strand

4 Polluted Delta

1 Plains

1 Mountain

3 Ancient Tomb

2 City of Traitors

1 Phyrexian Tower

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Academy Rector

4 Shield Sphere

Total: 8

Spells

4 Enduring Renewal

4 Goblin Bombardment

4 Enlightened Tutor

4 Mox Diamond

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Duress

Total: 28

Sideboard

4 Orim’s Chant

4 Tormod’s Crypt

3 Abeyance

4 Pyroclasm

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